Gears of War 4: Rico Squad
by Riddick writer
Summary: The Lambent invasion and all Locust forces were beleived to be destroyed two years ago thanks to Adam Fenix. Sgt. Matt Dunbar thought the same, but now with the emergence of Karn, a Locust hybrid, war has plagued Sera once again calling the Cog and newly named Leiutenant Matt Dunbar, back to action.   Orginal OC Submission-NO LONGER ACCEPTING JUST GIVE IT A READ! XD
1. Oc SubmissionIntro

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

Okay Gears Fans! As you all know Gears of war 3 recently came out, I just beat the campaign a few days ago and am now playing multiplayer constantly. The game has gotten me so excited about Gears of war again that I'm trying one of my old writing ideas. This is a Gears of War OC story. So that means you guys, the readers, get to create your own gear! I will be accepting OCs until Saturday of this week so today is Wednesday, that's not much time people so submit fast! Here is the following I want you to use to create your gear, I used the main character (leader of Rico Squad) as an example:

**Name: **Matt Dunbar

**Age: **42

**Personality: **Calm, Smart, Polite, Never gets angry, Strong willed, Honest,

**Appearance(tattoos/scars go here): **Bald head, Dusty Brown Goatee, Blue eyes, Muscular,

**Weapons (2 main, one sidearm or grenades preferably): **Lancer, Gnasher Shotgun, Snub Pistol,

**Personalities they like: **Honesty, Trust, Confidence, Calmness,

**Personalities they dislike: **Cocky, Mean, Annoying,

**What they would do if they knew it was the end: **Fight to the last breath

**What they would do if they were surrounded: **Pick off strongest enemies and work his way down.

**Rank (your chars can be Sergeants, Corporals, or Privates): **Lieutenant

**Specific Training (Sniper, Medic, Engineer, etc.): **No specific training

Okay guys I'm really excited to write this time. Preferably I want at least four Ocs to make up Rico Squad, if I get more than four they will be included in the story I promise. When you submit, leave it in the reviews please, it encourages others to do so! Ok I'm really excited, start ending the submissions in you gears fans! :D


	2. Chapter 1

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

_Riddick Writer(Author's Note): I do not own any Gears of war characters, places, weapons etc. I am writing this out of pure enjoyment of the series not on the intention of plagiarizing. Also, if you're OC is not on Rico squad, I've decided to make another squad in which the other characters will be on. Run ins with this other squad and the other Ocs will be frequent. If I am ever portraying your OC wrong please send me a Pm. Lastly, this story takes place two years after the events of Gears 3, so yes their may be spoilers. Alright let's rock and roll! _

**Chapter 1: Welcome Back to the Cog Vets**

"So that's a yes Lieutenant?" The wrinkly old Colonel Vinson was staring at him with obvious curiosity. Making a final decision, Lieutenant Matt Dunbar responded.

"Yes sir, I accept the assignment of leading Rico Squad on all missions during the Karn war until the end of the war or my death". With those similar words said by hundreds before him, Matt wrote his name on the piece of paper before him signing himself away to military service once again. He then calmly looked up at the Colonel who was smiling.

"I'm glad to have you back Dunbar," he said as he reached across the table grabbing the sheet of paper. "The squad is already assembled and is waiting for you on the second floor of the facility in your squad's meeting room, they need to be briefed on our new enemies".

Matt nodded slowly and watched as the Colonel stood placing the sheet of paper in a manila folder near by. Plagued with age, Matt wondered how old this Colonel was exactly. Obviously he wasn't as old as General Hoffman, who was now nearing sixty three, but surely his age must be up there…

"Oh and you might want this Lieutenant," the Colonel stopped two steps from exiting the small room and turned to hand Matt another sheet of paper. This one was a list of names, ranks and ages. "Rico Squad should be on there, who knows, maybe you'll know some of them". Matt nodded slowly and read the names of Rico Squad carefully:

Sergeant. Leonard Rhodes Age: 42

Corporal. Corey Rollard Age: 34

Private. Emily Hefresson Age: 24

Private. Jack F. Jones Age: 20

Satisfied Matt leaned back in his chair and looked at the Colonel who gave him a questioning look. "Well Dunbar, see anyone ya know?"

"Two, but the others are rookies so, I wouldn't know them". The Colonel grunted and nodded, "Well good luck Lieutenant, you best get up to that meeting room and go introduce yourself, the Karn aren't gonna sit around on their asses all day"!

With the last comment Matt chuckled and the Colonel left the room with Matt close behind. Once in people filled hall way they turned opposite directions, Matt fighting his way towards the elevators.

The Cog HQ, now located in New Jacinto, was massive now. It had been rebuilt since the invasions and was now a ten story building in the center of the city. Along with its newness, the Cog had made many recruits since the Lambent invasion, and were now a force to be reckoned with. Just like they were at the beginning of the Locust war.

Matt could tell you this instantly as he passed young face after young face, of new doctors, soldiers, and engineers. He recognized very few as three doctors passed him pushing a stretcher down the hall. Matt never understood why they attached the HQ to the new hospital. Maybe it was because their were so many injured in war. However, from what Matt had heard about their new enemies, it didn't sound like their would be many injuries, but many deaths…

Finally forty two year old Matt managed to get through to the elevators on the end of the first floor hall way. Of course, all three were occupied, so the Lieutenant folded his arms and waited patiently.

Matt Dunbar was of average height with muscular arms and bold facial features. His head was bald, his eyes a dulling blue, and his goatee around his mouth still a dusty brown. He was what most would call the perfect leader, physically and mentally.

The Lieutenant stood still waiting, it was going on at least five minutes. The stairs were on the opposite side of the people filled hall, otherwise he would have used them by now. Unlike most soldiers, who would grow impatient of waiting, Matt simply stood with the same calm expression he had when he started.

As a few more minutes passed, he didn't notice a former comrade come up behind him. The Lieutenant felt a tap on his right shoulder and turning he found nothing but the backs of people moving away from him. "Over here you old dope," the feminine voice instantly brought memories of the last war to Dunbar's head as he turned to his left instantly dropping his gaze to find who he expected.

Next to him, only about to his shoulder in height, was a girl with short black hair and blue eyes. The tips of her hair dyed brilliant colors of reds, blues, and yellows, like a rainbow.

Matt holding back loads of excitement merely smiled as her, "Been awhile since we've spoke Dalia," he chuckled happily making the girl slap his shoulder and smile back.

"You missed me," she told him making him laugh harder finally stopping to stare at the girl. She had grown since he first met her, and somehow, she looked changed, as if hardened by the Lambent invasion. "So Sergeant, what have you been up to these past years?"

Matt smiled, "Nothing much, a little mining, but two years feels too short to be returning to war". The girl frowned and nodded, they both knew the human race of Sera was getting sick of war, and so were they.

"Yeah, I still remember the old days," she brought up Matt's memories making him smile sadly.

"The old days huh, when you were a Private and every time I told you duck you would stand just to piss me off?" The girl laughed hysterically, "That's was so much fun", she suddenly stopped laughing when she remembered nearly getting shot one time.

Matt instantly noticed her recalling the event, "Yes, that was you that nearly lost her head," he chuckled making her scowl.

"Well I'm still here aren't I," she replied folding her arms just as an elevator full of engineers finally opened. The engineers said "hi" to both of them before passing in single file allowing the two war vets to step on the elevator.

Both of them hit the close door button after hitting the second floor to ensure no one else crowded the rather small elevator. To their luck, no one else managed to get on as the metallic doors quickly slid shut.

"So tell me Matt, your up there in age, what made you come back to war instead of staying retired," her innocent question made Matt raise his eye brows and smirk a little.

"I guess it's just a feeling of accomplishment that I'm seeking, I want to finish what I started," he answered with a shrug. She nodded believing the statement of her old comrade. Answering the question made him want to ask her another.

"How old are you now Dalia?" The girl looked at him with wide blue eyes smirking, "Actually I turned twenty six just last week". Matt smiled just as the elevators doors opened and the two stepped out.

"Well happy late birthday then Corporal," he told her as they began walking down the less dense hallway quickly, both were running a little late.

"What squad are you in now Sergeant?"

"It's not Sergeant anymore, I've been promoted to a Lieutenant," he explained making her gasp with shock.

"What!" "So you're leading a entire squad now!" Matt nodded confirming her suspicions, "What squad!"

"Rico Squad, got a few guys I know in it but two rookies it looks like". Dalia nodded sensing the urgency in his voice as they got down the hall, things all around the HQ were beginning to pick up as people rushed past them in the other direction.

"Well maybe I'll catch cha around Lieutenant," she said to him before turning left and jogging down the hall way to what must be her squad room. Matt watched Corporal Dalia Carson with pride, since she had been a Private with him, she had grown into a strong willed woman. That was good, a quality good gears needed Matt thought to himself as he finally stopped in front of a door that read _Rico Squad_.

Taking a deep breath he opened the door with dignified silence, he wanted to make a good first impression in front of his new squad. Shutting his eyes he slowly entered the room and opened them to find himself standing before a metallic table with four blank faces staring at him curiously.

"Are you Lieutenant Dunbar?" It was one of the younger men at the table who had asked the question. He had dirty blonde hair and brown curious eyes, Matt instantly could tell he was one of the rookies.

"Yes, I am, and you must be Private Jack Jones I presume?" The calmness of Matt's voice made the man smile a bit.

"Yeah, but you can call me Fixer," he said making Matt nod respectfully.

"Okay Private Fixer, you're a comms specialist I've heard?" The rest of the squad once again looked at the man, he didn't like all the attention, Matt could tell.

"Um, yeah, I trained for it," he stuttered a bit making Matt smile and nod. His gaze then switched over to a girl with red shiny red hair and emerald eyes. She was obviously the other rookie and Matt swore her hair color was natural.

"Private Emily Hefresson," he asked her getting a quick nod for a response. Matt guessed that she was just as nervous as Fixer if not more. They were pure rookies, that was for sure. "Is it true you're trained in medical aid?" Once again the girl nodded, she either didn't want to speak or was mute Matt concluded only to be mistaken moments later.

"Yes, I trained under my aunt Jeanne to be a doctor, but when this war started, I decided to join the Cog". Matt was surprised to hear her speak, and better yet she didn't sound nervous, simply relaxed.

"Good, it is always good to have someone with medical knowledge in a squad," he said happily making her smile as he turned to look at a veteran gear he had served along side in the last war.

Matt chuckled, "You're certainly not a rookie," making the green eyed, black haired man smile back and shrug.

"I wish I was," he joked back, "Big Lieutenant now huh Dunbar, how's it feel?" Matt smiled setting the paper with the squad names listed down on the table.

"It's alright, bit overwhelming right now, but I think it will get better, especially with you Corporal Rollard". Corey Rollard shook his head still smiling at Matt, "You get any better at sniping Corey?"

Corey's smile grew twice its normal size, "Oh yeah, you think I would lose all my skill over two short years?" Matt shrugged and finally turned to the last member of the group and probably the member with the most prestige in the group, Sergeant Leonardo Rhodes.

Matt had never met Leonardo in person, but he had heard several things about him from other gears that had fought alongside him. Appearance wise, he was nothing Matt could even imagine. Leonardo was a monster of a man with massive arms. As if his size wasn't scary enough, his Hispanic skin was covered in scars from war, two ran across his cheek near one of his eyes. Lastly he was unshaven and looked like his matted black hair hadn't received a trim in awhile. Physically, he was definitely everything Matt had heard about him.

"Are you going to say something or simply stare at me Lieutenant because I'm sensing fear in you." His heavy voice surprised Matt as he frowned at the comment.

"My apologies Sergeant Rhodes, I didn't mean to upset you, but I assure you, I am not scared of you". The big man laughed heftily making Emily flinch away from him a little.

"You're calmness and reputation precede you Lt. Dunbar!" Matt smiled at the man while the others watched Leonardo uncertainly as he stopped laughing and scratched his beard. "So, are you gonna brief us or not?"

Matt smirked, "That's the plan Sergeant," he replied as he turned around switching the room's lights off and pressing a button that caused a large monitor to drop down from the ceiling before the table. "Time to learn about our foes," Matt said as he walked to the back of the room holding a gray remote with several tiny buttons on it.

Instantly the group became very focused on the screen and hesitantly Matt hit the forward button on the remote causing a Locust like creature to appear on the screen. In fact, everything about it seemed locust, the scaly grayish white skin, the bulging muscles, the pointy teeth. Their was only one thing about it that surprised the squad, "It only has one eye?"

It was Cor. Corey Rollard who had exclaimed the comment as he spun to face Matt who nodded slowly. Corey then turned back to stare at the hideous thing. Half its head was one large yellow eye with a slit for a pupil. "Rico Squad, this is a Karn, a hybrid of locust that was long thought to be extinct," Matt informed them.

"Why did we think they were extinct?" Pvt. Fixer was the one asking this time.

"Apparently, underground, while we were fighting the Pendulum wars, the locust were fighting the karn, guess who won." Fixer nodded at the rhetorical question staring at the strange creature thoughtfully.

"I think I know why they lost," Leonardo chuckled as Matt switched to the next image. This time the creature was very similar looking to a locust grenadier holding a hammer burst rifle.

"They use locust weapons?" Fixer asked again, and Matt nodded.

"Yes, their war underground was fought using similar weapons, torque bows, boom shots, hammer bursts, you guys name it". Matt noticed Emily staring the picture closely, as if she was examining it for a test.

"I'm guessing that's a common karn soldier," she suddenly asked facing Matt who nodded.

"Very good Private, these ugly shirtless bastards are what we are going to see the most of, and remember, they use anything the locust did, so you could see a karn running around with a boom shot or a gnasher". The squad all nodded as the next picture popped up on the screen. It was of piles of stone that only close study showed it was rubble. "This is the south part of Quinta, one of the newer cities to the south, the Karn emerged here according to our reports".

"Quinta, didn't they just finish that city last year?" Fixer was asking and instead of the Lieutenant answering Cor. Rollard did.

"Yeah, my friend's wife just moved there," he told the Private gloomily making Fixer frown and scratch his head. "Yeah, not good". Corey turned back to face the screen as Matt clicked to the next image. This time a Karn wearing what looked like a bucket with a yellow visor on its head appeared. In its massive hands it held a short bolt action rifle that looked ancient compared to the hi-tech Cog guns.

Pvt. Fixer chuckled a bit, "It's wearing a bucket?" Matt nodded contently, all signs of joking around gone from his expression. Fixer gulped quietly worrying he had already screwed up and continued to stare at the silent Lieutenant.

"This is our biggest threat in our war according to reports," Matt broke the silence with difficulty struggling to find the right words. The group followed their squad leader as he slowly began walking around the table towards the monitor.

"That rifle is more powerful than it looks I bet," Cor. Rollard spoke without taking his eyes off the screen.

"Precisely," Matt was glad someone already had an idea of the threat, "These rifles are capable of taking a limb in a single shot". The room went utterly silent as everyone took a minute to study the creature holding the tiny rifle. It was hard to believe such a small looking gun could be so powerful, but Corey, who was a trained sniper, knew a good gun when he saw one.

"I'm guessing this is our biggest problem in the war, the snipers?" Matt nodded confirming Corey's question.

"Yes, Colonel Vinson was very specific, these rifles are our biggest threats in this war, so its important everyone remembers their training and stays low on missions". Matt was being as serious as possible reaching out to everyone in the room. Leonardo was the only one who seemed unimpressed or undaunted, but this didn't surprise Matt.

"So Lieutenant, if snipers are our biggest problem, why don't we retaliate by storming their locations?" It was Emily who had made the thoughtful comment and Matt was happy to answer the Private.

"That's where the regular Karn troops come in, apparently the Karn fight similar to the locust". He began not knowing someone else would finish for him.

"They fight in hordes, not caring for their dying comrades," Leonardo spoke to Emily coldly as if he was explaining the end of the world. "It's as if… they aren't a species but mere killing machines that only wish destruction upon all of Sera".

With a slow nod and wide eyes Emily looked down at her feet dwindling her thumbs a bit. She hadn't expected that answer from the Sergeant next to her.

"Leonardo is right, they fight in masses while the snipers pick us off from a distance, that is why in this war keeping you're head down will be extremely important," Matt announced. _It felt so weird being in control…_

"Other than that, we know nothing about our opponents only that they are storming the streets of Quinta as we speak". Everyone seemed content with the subject and remained quiet except for Fixer who seemed to have an idea.

"Okay, if we know their location why don't we turn on the hammer of dawn satellites and blast the living shit out of them?" Matt's brows raised in interest, it was the obvious solution and by far the most powerful weapon at the Cog's disposal, but the answer to the question was quite obvious and Emily happened to know it.

"Because Fixer," she addressed the fellow rookie making him turn to look across the table at her. "There are still civilians in the city, did we ever mention the civilians getting out?"

"Well no but I-," he was cut off by Cor. Rollard, "She's right, the civilians are the Cog's first priority". Fixer sighed and leaned back in his chair folding his arms in defeat.

"Alright, I think that's enough talking for one day, how about all of you go and take care of what you need to get done, tomorrow we will most likely being going straight into the fight on a search and rescue for Quinta civilians, tomorrow meet in here at seven am sharp with all you're equipment, be ready for action tomorrow". As Matt concluded the meeting he noticed Leonardo instantly leave, Leonardo didn't like to wait for battle…

Matt watched as his squad mates filed out of the room after Leonardo saluting good byes. Last was Cor. Rollard who stopped in front of Matt scratching his black hair uncertainly. "What is it Corporal?"

Corey instantly sighed, "Don't call me by rank Matt, this is personal". The Lieutenant raised his brows in surprise, he couldn't guess what the old comrade had to say.

"Well, let's hear it Corey," he edged the fellow gear on and slowly Corey began to explain.

"I had a friend way back when I joined the Cog, he was killed in action not too long after E-day… anyways, he was married, and well his wife is living in Quinta". Matt nodded instantly understanding where the Corporal was going with this story. "I promised I would always be there for her after his death, and just because I rejoined I'm not breaking that promise Matt".

Suddenly reaching a hand out Matt patted Corey on the shoulder, "We'll find her, I promise". Corey looked down as the Lieutenant's hand then back at his face and smiled, "Thanks Matt, she's my number one priority".

"I know, and we'll find her," Matt repeated as he led the Corporal out of the room into the soldier filled hallway. All the leaders must have just called an end to their meetings. "You go get some rest, tomorrow I need your sniping skills".

With a nod and a brief smile, Corey disappeared into the crowd leaving Matt all by himself. The pressure of leading his own squad was already getting to him he realized as he turned around only to find Colonel Vinson.

"Ah, there you are, I want you to head over to the garage and meet you're squad's personal driver!" Matt wanted to shoot himself at the thought of walking to the opposite side of the building but instead nodded.

"I'll head straight there then Colonel".

"Good, oh, and make sure you get some shut eye, your looking a bit tired". With that last comment the Colonel quickly disappeared in the crowd as Corey had done moments ago leaving Matt once again as he began fighting towards the garage in frustration.

After what felt like ten minutes too long he emerged on the west side of the HQ in the large cement floored room filled with Cog vehicles. The garage was massive and dark, filled with engineers and drivers examining the various Cog vehicles. It sounded and looked more like a factory than a military garage Matt thought as he took a few steps from the door only to be greeted by a engineer. "Lt. Dunbar?"

"Yeah that's me". Instantly the engineer ran off disappearing behind a centaur tank, he returned with a tall, young, brown haired man behind him.

"Lieutenant, this is Rico Squad's personal driver, Cor. Jon Downey," the engineer introduced the man who politely shook Matt's hand with a firm grip.

"A pleasure to meet you Lt. Dunbar, I've heard lots about you," he said.

"I hope their good things," Matt joked making the driver chuckle a bit. "Wouldn't want my old comrades running around with rumors now would I?"

Jon shook his head at the humor, "Well Lieutenant, is Rico Squad heading out tomorrow morning on search and rescue?" The driver instantly got down to business.

"Yes, Colonel Vinson informed me of that earlier today when I signed up to lead Rico". Jon nodded and turned to the engineer hastily.

"Were going to have to get that Armadillo up and running before morning, that's what I'm driving these guys out in tomorrow". The engineer nodded and jogged off not wasting any time as he grabbed a wire cutter. Jon turned back to Matt scratching his five o'clock shadow that covered his chin, "Wish we had more time to chat, but to be honest, if were going anywhere I gotta fix up our ride".

"Fine by me, its going on seven o'clock and I'm tired enough as it is," Matt replied with a loud yawn. Jon laughed a bit and turned away beginning to chat with other engineers about fixing the armadillo.

"Catch cha in the morning Lieutenant," he called after Matt. Matt waved a good bye and not wasting any time left the noisy garage. One thing was on the exhausted Lieutenant's mind, _sleep…_

Since Matt had been recalled to the Cog by General Hoffman himself, he hadn't slept. It took all of yesterday for Hoffman to finally convince him to rejoin and half of today for Colonel Vinson to convince him to lead Rico Squad and take on the promotion of Lieutenant. The forty two year old felt as if the world was falling on his shoulders, could he really lead a squad successfully without any casualties? Is he really meant to be a Lieutenant? Suddenly Matt regretted his decision, but now, there was no going back, and the old gear knew that well.


	3. Chapter 2

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 2: Sparks of War**

The following morning Matt Dunbar awoke extremely early to the blaring of the HQ's speakers. "All search and rescue squads are to prepare for departure immediately, I repeat, all search and rescue squads are to prepare for departure immediately!"

Matt recognized the voice as Colonel Vinson as he rolled out of bed quickly already strapping his boots on. He then flung open his room's closet revealing a full set of shiny cog armor minus the helmet. Wasting no time, the sleepy eyed Lieutenant began to put the pieces on one by one. As he strapped the heavy cog chest piece on he made a grunt of surprise, it had been awhile since he last wore it and he had forgotten how thick the armor was. When he finished equipping himself, he seized his cog tags, threw them around his neck, and rushed out into the noise filled corridor.

Gears were running up and down the barracks corridor in their armor. Everyone panting at the weight of the armor, Matt swore the military had added weight to the chest piece. Without putting too much more thought into it, Matt began working his way towards the armory when Emily suddenly appeared before him looking confused.

"Oh there you are Lieutenant, where do I go?" Her voice was desperate and her expression one of worry, she was lost and bedraggled.

"First we should hit the armory Private, follow me," with the quick comment Matt began jogging down the corridor passing armed gears. Emily watched them with interest staring in awe at the lancers they had just received. "Nearly there Emily."

The red head nodded confidently as Matt came to an abrupt stop and she bumped into him. "Sorry," Matt told her as he patiently waited in what seemed to be a line into a room. In fact, that's exactly what it was Emily realized as gears began to push her in from behind.

Inside the small armory the twenty four year old Private was amazed at all the Cog weapons. Everything from the retro lancers to the longshots mounted on the walls just made her very interested on the mechanics required to build them. Matt was obviously uninterested as he made it to the counter where a weapons master stood looking at him with wide eyes.

"What can I get you?" The weapon's master was urgent, he was trying his best to get through all the soldiers as quickly as possible.

Matt took a moment as if to think before replying, "Give me the standard issue". The weapon's master nodded and in a matter of seconds was handing Matt a lancer and several ammunition clips. Emily watched as another weapon master appeared to her left taking some of the gears behind her to a different counter in the crowded room. _Was every morning like this? _

When Matt stepped away for Emily to pass, he had the lancer and gnasher hooked on his back. Holstered to his belt was the cog snub pistol. That must be what standard issue is Emily thought to herself as she stepped up to the counter with a focused face.

"I'll have the standard issue as well," she said firmly and the weapons master quickly supplied her with similar equipment to Matt. However, when he held out the gnasher shotgun to her she shook her head, "No thanks, I'll be fine with just this," she indicated the lancer before turning and walking away happily leaving the weapon's master scratching his head.

Matt was waiting just out the door for her next to a line of gears, many of which he was speaking too. He smiled as Emily exited the armory and she smiled back. "Know where to go now on missions?"

The red head rolled her emerald eyes playfully, "Yes, what's next?" Matt's smile widened as the older gear led her down the hall past the other gears. Towards the rear they found Pvt. Fixer who looked somewhat clueless in his cog armor. "Hey Lieutenant, Emily, where are we assembling?"

Matt nodded towards the elevators down the hall, "Second floor squad room, same place as yesterday". Fixer nodded his understanding and Matt and Emily jogged off.

**XVX**

Matt hesitantly entered Colonel Vinson's office on the eighth floor, he was unsure why the Colonel had summoned him at such a unusual time. Rico Squad was supposed to be hitting the road to Quinta, not sitting at the HQ still…

"Ah, Lieutenant, glad you good stop by to see me!" The Colonel didn't budge from his leather chair and indicated the chair across the desk from him.

Matt sat down uncomfortably, his armor being annoying. "My apologies Colonel but what is this about exactly, you told me we were on search and rescue". The Colonel nodded and sipped his steaming coffee without taking his eyes off Matt's.

"Yes, but, your squad has the most experience out of any other search and rescues squads. That's why were sending Rico Squad downtown". Matt's eyes brows raised at the statement. _Downtown, surely it would be overrun by now! _

Keeping his composure his brows returned to normal, "But sir, won't that area be completely overrun?" The Colonel merely nodded as if it was no big deal.

"Most likely…but I have faith in you, Sgt. Rhodes, and Cor. Rollard that you guys can get the job done". Matt wanted to protest but instead took the orders as they were given and stood slowly.

"Very well Colonel, I won't disobey you, we'll head straight to downtown Quinta and evacuate as many civilians as possible". The Colonel grinned, then standing he saluted Matt. Matt returned the motion then left the office with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

**XVX**

"That pack sounds like a pretty nice piece of equipment then, what else can it do other than keep us in contact with the HQ?" In the squad room, a interested Emily was listening to Fixer explain his comm. Pack. Cor. Corey Rollard was also listening intently while Sgt. Rhodes sat at the other end of the table polishing his sawed off shotgun with a white rag.

"Well other than keeping us in constant communication, it also stores and charge a hammer of dawn. In fact, each pack is specifically linked to one hammer of dawn satellite". Fixer was obviously very proud to use this piece of equipment Emily learned as he pushed a green button causing the metallic pack to open revealing a hammer of dawn inside.

"Cool!" Emily exclaimed eagerly, it wasn't like her be so curious, maybe it was because this was her first mission. Cor. Corey couldn't guess as he spoke.

"Wish we had those back during the Locust Invasion, it would have saved us a lot of trouble," Corey said dismally making Fixer and Emily look at him with curiosity written all over their faces.

"What kind of trouble?" Both Privates had asked at the same moment making them shake their heads at each other and smile.

"Well for starters, we always lost contact with HQ and our squad mates, the satellites were just shitty. That thing also charges the hammer you said? Well we never had the chance, we'd have about maybe five to ten minutes of blasting with the hammer before we'd run out of juice. You guys are lucky the cog invented some of this new tech, I mean even during the Lambent invasion two years back we didn't have some of this stuff". He flicked his armor and smiled, it felt so much thicker than it did two years ago.

"Wow, losing communication with your own squad mates, that had to suck". Fixer closed the pack and strapped it back onto his back along with his Retro lancer. Cor. Corey couldn't help but stare at the retro lancer, it seemed riddled with age like it wasn't from the armory.

"Hey Fix, how old is that retro lancer, did you just grab it from the armory?" Fixer turned his head in surprise at the Corporal and removed the retro from his back laying it on the table.

"Nope, it was my father's. He died fighting in Landown during the Pendulum wars. But when he died one of his comrades grabbed his gun and sent it to my family as something to remember him by. I didn't see the point in leaving it home, so I decided to put it to use. It kind of makes me feel like he's there with me."

Corey nodded slowly in understanding. Pvt. Fixer obviously had a family with war experience. That was good, maybe the Private would have some good basic battle tactics already installed in his youthful mind. As for Emily, she seemed pretty content and focused. He found it hard to see her making mistakes. Maybe she had a family war background too.

"It is good you see that way," the deep voice of Leonardo spoke from the other end of the table interrupting Corey's thoughts. The trio turned to look at the man wondering what he meant.

"That you're father is still with you Fixer. Because every gear I've fought along side I never forget, and when they die, they're soul simply leaves the body. But their always up there watching us, remember that". The trio stared somewhat blankly nodding fake understanding. Leonardo, satisfied they believed him, returned to polishing his sawed off in silence.

Emily glanced at Fixer sideways and Fixer returned the glance with a small shrug. Suddenly the door slid open and in stepped Lt. Dunbar with a grim look on his face.

He studied the room briefly checking everyone was ready for action. Sgt. Rhodes was definitely ready, his retro lancer laying on the table before him and a shiny sawed off shotgun sitting on his large lap. Cor. Rollard also looked ready, his cog helmet sitting on the table before him and his longshot leaning against the table. As for Emily, she looked pretty nervous, but at the same time, focused. Fixer had similar looks as he stared at Matt waiting for him to speak.

"I think were ready Lieutenant," Leonardo said as he stood from his chair clipping his sawed off and retro to his back. The others did the same, Corey and Fixer putting their helmets on giving them the traditional gear look.

"Good, let's go", Matt's voice was edged with uncertainty. He wasn't used to giving orders, but receiving them. Those days were over, now it was time for him to be leader. He would have to get used to it.

As he spun on his heel walking down the hall towards the stairs his squad followed. All of them walking in revered silence, this would be their first time engaging karn. Worse yet, Rico squad was going straight into the heart of the city for search and rescue. There was no way they wouldn't run into trouble Matt realized as he trotted down the steps with his squad seconds behind him.

"These helmets are kind of difficult to see in," Fixer commented from the rear. Matt glanced back at the Private with worry. The karn were sniper experts, and those helmet's visors didn't always provide the best vision for gears.

Finally reaching the first floor of the HQ Matt wasted no time striding down the hall and through the doors into the large garage. This time the amount of vehicles had significantly dropped, but the noise of engineers working was still plenty loud.

As Matt stepped in, his squad branched out around him observing all the different vehicles with interest. Matt caught a glimpse of a cog chest piece moving towards him and turned to see Cor. Downey moving towards him.

"You guys ready to head out?" Matt glanced at his squad before turning back to him.

"As ready as were gonna be".

Cor. Downey chuckled and motioning the group to follow began walking towards a vehicle of large size. It was a metallic black with three massive wheels on either side. The white cog symbol was embroiled on the hood of the box like vehicle and a hatch on the top appeared to be the only way in. But Pvt. Fixer wasn't fascinated with the vehicle, but the guns attached to it's sides.

"Holy shit look at these things," he laughed. His voice cracking with excitement, he was obviously very techy, like Cor. Rollard could be.

"Yep those things are pretty powerful, go ahead and climb in," Downey told the squad who obeyed instantly. Soon all six gears were in the tight space with Cor. Downey in the driver's seat and Matt riding shotgun. "Alright, you guys ready to shoot some bitches?"

With a chorus of replies from the back and a quick smile from Matt, Cor. Downey revved up the engine and opened the garage speeding out into the early morning darkness.

**XVX**

It was about five A.M in the morning when Rico squad had first left the HQ. They were about ten minutes behind the rest of the search and rescues squads at first, but with a driver who knew some short cuts, they managed to catch up and fall in line with the other armadillos as they sped down the highway.

Now the first rays of the sun were appearing in the horizon and Matt could hear his squad shuffling awake. At the beginning of the drive the majority had fallen asleep, knowing the drive wasn't a short one. But now they were waking each other as Quinta's tallest buildings came into view through the glass in the front of the vehicle.

"Almost there Rico Squad," Cor. Downey announced happily then looked at Matt puzzled. "They didn't give you a comm. Ear piece?" Matt's brows raised like usual as he fumbled in his pants pocket producing a small metal ear piece from his pocket.

"No I just forgot to put it on," he said with a frown as he held the piece up to his ear and clipped it on. Immediately he heard the other search and rescue squads on the comm.

"Meeko Squad is about two clicks from the bridge into the city," he recognized the voice of Lt. Jacobs, a African American gear who was known for his bravery in the Locust war.

"Were right behind you," another squad replied cheerfully as Matt squinted ahead along the highway to make out the gigantic metal bridge ahead of them. It was about ten football fields in total length he estimated as Cor. Downey hit a pot hole making Pvt. Fixer fall from his seat in back and smack his head.

Laughter erupted from the back of the vehicle and Matt glanced back smiling. "It's probably a good thing you wear a helmet," Emily giggled making Pvt. Fixer return to his seat grumpily.

It was good they weren't nervous. Nervousness made mistakes. Matt knew this all too well the first time he had fought a locust butcher. He was so intimidated by it's size that he froze staring in horror. It was Cor. Rollard that saved him from the butcher with a well placed shot from a longshot that decapitated the locust instantly. Since then, Matt had always remembered to remain calm, and take things as they come. One step at a time.

"About halfway across the bridge now, Rico Squad, you behind us?" Matt recognized the voice of Lt. Eckhart, a heavy set man most notable for his brown mustache and glasses.

"Yeah Eck, were right behind you, what squad are you leading?" Their was a little static on the comm before Lt. Eckhart replied laughing

"Same squad as always Dunbar, Echo squad, Cor. Carson here says you're new to leading a squad?"

"That would be correct," Matt answered just as Cor. Downey swerved out of the way of a civilian car on the bridge. In fact, several cars blocked their path and if it wasn't for Cor. Downey's sharp eyes, they probably would have hit one like the armadillos had done ahead of them. Even if they did hit the civilian cars, armadillos were strong enough to simply push them out of the way.

"That's excellent Dunbar, proud to have you aboard as a Lieutenant". Matt opened his mouth to reply but didn't when earth shattering sound was heard. The veteran gear instantly recognized it as a gunshot and watched as an armadillo ahead of Echo squad's veered off to the right.

"Holy shit, they got the driver!" Downey exclaimed as he veered to the left narrowly missing the armadillo as it crashed into the side of the bridge, nearly flipping off the bridge.

Matt's eyes were wide with alarm for once as he looked in the rear view mirror to see the hatch on the top of the armadillo behind them fling open. "They're okay, they just got the driver," he spoke into the comm and to Downey who nodded as another gunshot echoed across the bridge barely missing the windshield.

"Holy shit, that almost went straight through the glass!" Pvt. Fixer shouted with obvious fear. The squad went from peacefully waking up to sudden realization _that this, was war. _

Another armadillo spun out of line ahead of them doing the same thing the other one before had done. They passed it with Downey accelerating, "We need to get off this damn bridge it's a killing ground, tell the other squads to hurry the hell up!" Matt nodded and put his hand to the ear piece to prevent his voice from getting drowned out as more gunshots echoed outside the vehicle.

"Speed it up this is Lt. Dunbar, were sitting ducks on this bridge!" He heard several grunts of acknowledgement from the other Lieutenants as Meeko squad's armadillo was the first off the bridge into the city. Soon after the sniper shots stopped and the remaining armadillos crossed the rest of the bridge in confusion. "Why did they stop?"

Matt was basically talking himself he said it so quietly as he stared through the window up at the rooftops only to see nothing. "They just stopped?" Pvt. Hefresson voiced the question louder from behind him as the armadillo drove straight down the street passing abandoned civilian cars.

"I don't know what the hell is going on but what part of the city you guys evacuating?" Downey asked grumpily as armadillos ahead of them began turning to go to different parts of the city. Matt looked at him grimly biting his lip.

"Downtown," he said confidently making Downey take his eyes off the road and stare for a few seconds before regaining control of the wheel.

"What!" Matt's gaze was unmoving as he looked away briefly then back at the driver.

"You heard me, we need you to take us downtown". The driver was shaking his head angrily. Matt knew he was thinking suicide and Matt was pretty much thinking the same thing, but he didn't have a choice, it was an order.

"Wait Matt, downtown is going to be flooded with them," Cor. Rollard exclaimed from the back only to receive a nod of acknowledgement from the leader.

Instantly panic sunk into both Emily and Fixer who began asking questions rapidly. "Why downtown?" "Were rookies, privates!" Both voices alarm with fear and nervousness as the last armadillo ahead of them disappeared down a street to the left.

"Relax," Matt said forcefully instantly making both Privates stop speaking. Fixer nodded his head making the helmet bob up and down.

"He's right Emily, we need to stay calm," suddenly Pvt. Fixer was speaking with new found will and courage. Emily looked at him her eyes wild with fear. Corey placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked into the blue eyes of his helmet finally nodding that she had regained calmness.

"Alright, straight ahead," Downey said dismally as he pulled into a alley slowly driving down it practically scraping the walls. The large vehicle barely fit and soon they were pushing a green dumpster down the alley too as they saw the other street just a few meters ahead.

Just as the hood of the vehicle emerged from the alley Matt heard an all too familiar sound, "HEADS DOWN!" Instantly the vehicle shook as an explosion rocked the armadillo onto his side causing all the gears to fall into each other screaming.

Once again panic filled the inside of the vehicle as another explosion sent the armadillo skidding even further down the street away from the alley. As if that wasn't enough, the windshield had shattered, the glass cutting Matt's hands and face with stinging pain.

"Everyone out and be careful, their shooting at us with a boomshot!" Instantly Matt began crawling forward over the dash leaving the unconscious driver behind in the driver seat. The rest of the squad followed suit and managed to get just in time to hear another rocket miss the armadillo and go into a building causing a mass of rubble to collapse into the street noisily.

Matt drew his lancer and turned down the street to face the shooter. The gray skinned creatures were behind a wall of sandbags, the one with the boomshot standing on top of a civilian car giving what looked like orders. Currently the creature was clumsily reloading while his comrades sat waiting hesitantly with what looked like hammer bursts.

"Let's make these bitches pay," Leonardo spat as the big sergeant finally got out of the armadillo and stood. The squad nodded in agreement and remembering their training jumped into cover behind walls and civilian cars.

The other karn finally opened fire unleashing a barrage of bullets as the gears got into cover. "Corey! Snipe that boomshot!" Matt was forced to yell the order over the noise of the hammer bursts which was difficult from across the street. But somehow Corey heard him and in a flash was aiming the longshot from a prone position barley exposing himself to the attacking karn.

Taking a deep breath he stared down the scope just as the karn held up the boomshot. With a simple pull of his finger he watched the creature head disappear in a fountain of blood as it's lifeless corpse fell backwards off the car. "Good shot!" Emily called to him from the alley in which they had first arrived. The Private was in no hurry to engage herself against the dozen or so karn who were still shooting pointlessly.

Finally the constant hammer burst fire stopped briefly allowing Matt and Emily to lean out with their lancers. Matt showing no hesitation, shot about ten shots, each one spewing blood from the now dead karn. Emily's shots were a little off however as the inexperienced female gear hit her target twice in the shoulder.

The wounded karn howled in pain and just before it could duck was killed with a easy shot from Corey. Emily nodded her thanks to him and he gave her the thumbs up from his position on the ground. "My turn!" Pvt. Fixer spoke this time as he stood up from his cover behind a civilian car in front of Corey's.

The second the Private stood, he shot a burst from his retro lancer that missed its mark. Sgt. Rhodes instantly saw his issue from the opposite side of the street. "Fixer!" The Private ducked back into cover and turned his helmeted head to Leonardo as the karn began firing once again.

Leonardo motioned for the Private to watch him as despite the gunfire, he stood and shot with his retro lancer. He aimed the gun slightly lower then his intended target and shot about five shots. Each one going straight up the chest of a karn spraying blood across its comrade. With a grin, Leonardo watched the creature fall just as he ducked to avoid bullets directed by another karn.

Pvt. Fixer got the message and poked his head out to watch Cor. Rollard snipe another karn with ease. As soon as the karn fire stopped he, Matt and Emily all leaned out blasting away. About three karn fell, Emily and Fixer both claiming their first kill as gears. "Whoo, I got the hang of this!" Fixer exclaimed happily as he ducked back down.

Matt couldn't help but smile a little at the Private's excitement. But that didn't change the fact they were still in battle and the karn weren't giving it up easily as bullets scraped the building he hid behind. Finally they were directed elsewhere and Matt leaned out only to have his eyes widen in shock once again.

Sgt. Leonardo had left his cover and was charging towards the sandbags without hesitation. All of the karn attempted to fire upon him but were quickly being shot down by Corey, Emily and Fixer in flashes of blood and gore.

Finally the last karn stood up only to be kicked over as Leonardo hurdled the sandbags jabbing the bayonet of the gun straight into the karn's one eye making it scream in pain. Not satisfied, Leonardo yanked the bloody bayonet out of the creature's head and slashed his throat apart with a laugh of pure joy.

Sgt. Rhodes then turned slowly as his squad approached the sandbags still aiming as if their were more but according to Leonardo that was the last of them.

Matt hopped over the sandbags and stared at the bloody mess of karn on the pavement. "They weren't so tough," Pvt. Fixer said happily.

Matt shook his head frowning slightly at the Private's over confidence. "Go check on Cor. Downey, Pvt. Hefresson, go with him". The red haired girl nodded and sprinted after Fixer who was already almost at the ruined armadillo at the end of the street. Matt then turned to Leonardo while the Privates were out of earshot. "Don't do that again, you could have easily been killed".

Leonardo merely shrugged as if the Lieutenant's words meant nothing to him. "Sorry, I'm just doing my job," he answered making Matt frown further. When he looked at Corey for help, Corey shrugged at the Sergeant's stubbornness. Matt then returned his gaze to the Sergeant.

"Fine, have it you're way," he said keeping his voice calm and monotone. This made the big Sergeant grin devilishly as the two Privates returned with a consciousness, but slow walking Cor. Downey. "How are you feeling?" Matt asked.

The Driver shrugged as he was helped over the sandbags by Emily. "Been better," he answered making Matt nod and stare down the street uncertainly. There could be more karn anywhere…

"I think we should check the grocery market down there, their might be some civilians hiding inside," Cor. Rollard suggested. Matt followed Corey's finger to the indicated grocery market and nodded, "Good idea, Downey can you walk okay?"

The driver nodded making Matt turn to face the market with determination on his face. "Then let's head inside Rico Squad".

_Riddick Writer: Okay quick author's note. First of all _**XVX **_is a scene change for those of you who haven't figured that out yet. Second, all Ocs that haven't been introduced or even mentioned yet will be in the upcoming chapter I promise. Sorry for those who I haven't mentioned yet! :/ _

_Oh and don't forget to review! :P _


	4. Chapter 3

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 3: Echo Squad to the Rescue**

Rico Squad slowly approached the glass doors of the grocery market aiming their guns aggressively. Every member of the squad expected to find either karn or civilians inside, maybe even some stranded. Now days the civilians and stranded were two different entirely groups to the cog.

The civilians, were well, civilians. They didn't participate in war any shape or form. They were believers of the cog government unlike the stranded who were now completely rebelling against the cog. In fact, most stranded groups would open fire on cog soldiers without a moment's hesitation. It was that fact that worried Matt as he kicked opened the glass doors to the grocery market and stormed inside with his squad close behind.

Instantly the gears realized the store's lights were out making it difficult to see across the large store filled with aisles of random foods and beverages. Matt frowned and turned to Emily who was peeking over the check out counter, "Are there any light switches?"

The red head glanced at him then back over the counter shaking her head. This didn't surprise Matt as he stared down one aisle in which several cans lay in a mess on the floor. _Someone was here before them…_

"Leonardo, Fixer, take the far right aisle, Emily you're with me down the middle, and Jon and Corey take the far left," he ordered quietly receiving nods as the people who had shotguns took them out. Rico Squad could barley see each other as they stalked down aisles in crouched positions expecting an ambush but to Matt's surprise they reached the far side of the store with no problems. Not even a single noise, the dark store was eerily quiet.

"Surprised the stranded aren't using this as a hideout," Cor. Downey muttered as he sat down on a tipped over crate of what seemed to be soda.

Pvt. Fixer looked at him, "Why? They usually use grocery markets as hideouts?" The driver smirked at the Private's inexperience to the new era.

"It's an ideal place, think about it. You have unlimited access to food and drink. One entrance, and a storage room to hide and sleep in. With the proper amount of fire power, this market is easily defended," Corey jumped into the conversation. Pvt. Fixer immediately got the other Corporal's explanation and fully understood why the stranded liked to use them.

"Okay, but why would the power be out?" Emily asked making everyone shrug without an explanation.

"Maybe the karn we just killed were scavenging earlier," Fixer suggested making Emily smile a little.

"Right, because they totally eat human food?" Fixer shrugged at the comment and Matt swore if the Private's helmet was off he'd be returning the smile. The two Privates were getting along well despite the current circumstances.

"Matt, you should contact another squad and tell them about our situation," Corey suddenly said making Matt nod and take a few steps away from his squad mates. He put a hand to his ear and pushed the tiny button to speak into the comm.

"This is Lt. Dunbar of Rico Squad, our armadillo has been destroyed and we might be stuck, any suggestions from HQ or another Lieutenant?" Matt waited a few moments before he got a loud buzz of static. He turned to give the squad a grim look but instead spotted Pvt. Fixer leaning against the wall, which might be the problem. "Fixer move away from the wall for a sec".

The Private did so uncertainly then realized that he was pushing the comm. pack against the wall messing up the channel. "Sorry," he mumbled while the rest of the squad watched Matt hopefully as he repeated his explanation of their situation.

This time, he immediately got a response, "This is HQ Lt. Dunbar, do you need another vehicle?" Matt gave a quick thumbs up to the squad before turning away again.

"Um yes-," he never got to finish the sentence as bullets shattered the market's glass from the front and began pelting past the gears. Instantly they reacted by falling to the ground covering their heads.

"Those cowards! Ambushes are for fucking cowards!" Leonardo yelled with rage as he stood and began returning fire with his retro lancer. He was only up for a few seconds before being forced back into cover by the overwhelming amount of karn entering the now brightly lit grocery market.

Matt looked up at the market's lights and frowned unhappily. "They planned this from the start," Emily exclaimed and Matt nodded. The karn knew that they would check the store, so the karn set up an ambush, and Rico squad fell for it perfectly.

The karn were soon filling the store and taking cover behind the check out tables and aisles unleashing hammer burst fire upon the surprised gears. Pvt. Fixer barely managed to crawl across the floor into cover when a bullet hit the spot his foot once was startling him. "Holy shit!"

Matt looked around at his squad mates who all had taken cover behind the aisles like the karn had done on the opposite side. "We got some blitzers!" Corey shouted over the gunfire making Matt peek down the aisle to see a rather burly karn sprinting down the aisle holding a gnasher shotgun. Blind firing with his lancer, he shot the creature down into the ground then shot two more bullets into its head killing it only to have another one sprint down the aisle in its place. Matt leaned out this time spraying bullets at the karn with help from Emily, this one was killed much faster than the first in a splash of gore.

"Theirs so many!" Emily exclaimed with what sounded like fear.

"Just keep shooting! We'll kill them all eventually!" Corey had shouted the comment just as he shot one in the eye killing it instantly. He smiled and cried out, "Bulls eye!"

As the battle dragged on in the market more and more karn perished to Rico Squad's accurate gunfire. But for every karn that was killed, it seemed another entered the store to replace it. As if that wasn't a problem enough, the gears were slowly running out of ammunition.

"Damn, where do they keep coming from?" Cor. Downey demanded as he had to reload his lancer for the third time.

He didn't get an answer as the battle raged on with bullets flying everywhere. The gears were beginning to lose their accuracy and were getting tired from the duration of the battle. The aisles weren't the best cover either.

Forgetting to check the aisle for blitzers one managed to sprint down the one to Fixer's right as he was reloading. Just as the ugly creature popped out ready to splatter the unsuspecting Private, it was batted to the ground by the butt of Leonardo's sawed off. "Fuck you!" Leonardo yelled at it before splattering it on the ground in a mess of bloody chunks making Fixer nearly vomit inside of his helmet.

Leonardo crouched beside Fixer for a second breathing heavily as he reloaded. "You… can… thank me later," the big Sergeant huffed in between breaths as he stood to move back to his original cover. Fixer couldn't believe it, _Sgt. Rhodes was actually enjoying this… _

Without thinking too much more about the thought, the Private returned to the action gunning a karn down with lethal lancer shots. "This is Lt. Dunbar of Rico Squad, were in need of assistance!" Matt suddenly shouted over the gunfire. He waited for a response and checked to make sure the transmission on Fixer's comm. pack wasn't being blocked like earlier. In fact, Fixer was smart enough to take it off during battle to give himself more mobility in the shootout. So obviously the pack wasn't the problem.

"This is Lt. Dunbar of Rico Squad," he raised his voice significantly making his team mates look at him in confusion. When they saw he wasn't giving orders, they returned to shooting quick bursts at the swarming karn. Finally Matt got a response.

"Lt. Eckhart here, HQ says Echo squad is near you're location Dunbar, sit tight were on our way". Matt's mood lightened slightly as he replied immediately.

"Will do Eck," as he said the last comment he stood and unleashed the last of his clip on the upper torso of karn felling it in a pool of blood. He then ducked back into cover and reloaded quickly, "Hold them off Rico Squad, just hold them off!"

Emily nodded at him and being smart with ammo stopped shooting at enemies who were smart enough to stay near cover. Instead she peeked her red haired head up and only stood to shoot at stupid karn that fully exposed themselves. Soon Pvt. Fixer was copying this strategy and Matt could tell the Corporals, Corey and Jon, were thinking the same.

The battle dragged on for another ten minutes of relentless shooting and killing. Rico Squad was running into issues. First of all, there was no retreat, all they could do was run in the storage room to their left and that would only trap them further. Second, the karn were swarming into the store. No matter how many bloody karn corpses fell to the ground, more seemed to arrive. Lastly, the gears were simply getting exhausted. This was their first time in a major battle since the Lambent invasion, and none of them were prepared for this type of situation so soon. Even Matt was beginning to wonder if they were in trouble just as the inevitable happened.

Pvt. Fixer just got done reloading and stood with his lancer spraying at a karn behind one of the check out counters. To his dismay the karn ducked and instead another karn popped up launching a single shot at him with a boltok pistol. The Private had no time to react as the bullet propelled itself straight through his sleeve cutting through the meaty part of his arm.

Screaming in pain, he fell backwards dropping his lancer. Immediately Cor. Rollard moved over to him and set his lancer down pulling the wounded gear into cover. "Is it bad? Oh god, it fucking hurts!"

Corey instantly noticed the wound wasn't too serious. A bullet wound was still a bullet wound. "Corey, he okay?" It was the Lieutenant himself asking just as he ducked into cover to reload.

Corey nodded briefly at Matt before returning to the wounded Private. Emily had moved closer to them taking Corey's old cover as her own, "You have to stop the bleeding". She told him making the Corporal nod as he ripped off his own sleeve on his right arm revealing a large tattoo on his bicep. Corey then wrapped the torn sleeve tightly around Fixer's wound, hoping to stop the bleeding.

"Shit man, that hurts," Fixer moaned as Corey removed the sweaty Private's helmet to see his face. Fixer was gritting his teeth in pain and breathing like heavily. The bullet had gone straight through, meaning they wouldn't have to remove it, and the wound simply needed to be stitched back together. The only reason this hurt Fixer so much was inexperience. The Private had never been shot before very simply.

"Okay Fixer, that's all I can really do for you right now. Are you going to be able to continue fighting?" Fixer sat up and Corey pushed him hastily back the ground to prevent him from getting shot again. Injured gears also seem to lose their sense of direction after getting hurt.

Fixer finally quit gritting his teeth and smiled while nodding weakly with closed eyes. He then opened them and put his helmet back on, "Give me my lancer," he ordered. Corey obeyed and soon the Private was back into the fight, unleashing hell with the rest of his squad at the karn.

Matt had watched the whole scene in some what of worry. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the wound wasn't serious. It just made a squad leader naturally unhappy to see a rookie get shot for the first time. Even so, Matt didn't let it distract him as he blind fired once again, killing a Blitzer.

The battle was lasting too long however, and Matt knew this along with Downey, Corey, and Leonardo. The four cog veterans were struggling to keep their aisles clean off Blitzers while dodging bullets from hammer bursts. _It was only a matter of time before one person missed a Blitzer and somebody got killed… _

A few more minutes of constant gunfire passed and still, no Echo Squad in sight. Matt was beginning to wonder if they ran into trouble themselves. It wasn't until he killed a rather fat karn with a several shots to the head when he heard a familiar sound.

Just outside the store he heard the sound of a large vehicle, a armadillo, and the sounds of definite lancer fire. Every gear could tell the difference between the heavy shots of hammer burst to the quick sounding ones from a lancer. There was no doubt about, help had finally arrived.

"Alright, reinforcements!" Pvt. Fixer exclaimed happily as the karn stupidly began to leave cover and run outside to see the commotion.

This made them easy targets for Rico Squad as stupid creature after stupid creature was gunned down from behind. "This is easier than taking candy from a baby!" Downey called out with joy as he shot a Blitzer causing blood to spew from the back of it's head.

Within a minute the last of the karn were forced into the store and Matt could see Echo squad outside forcing them in. Soon Sgt. Rhodes was blitzing along with some of Echo squad leaving the rest of Rico Squad to watch in surprise.

The first karn of the remaining five, turned on Leonardo just in time to be split in two with a mighty blast from the sawed off. Blood splattered on the Sergeant's body and he laughed heftily. Meanwhile a helmeted gear with a long green hair hanging from his helmet rushed into the store tackling a karn over the counter with a yell. Matt then watched as a familiar Corporal entered the store shooting a karn in the leg making if fall to the floor. The gear from Echo squad had caramel skin and long black dreads with a determined expression on his face as he finished off the karn by curb stomping it's head into a bloody mess on the floor. The last two karn threw down their guns in hope of surrender, but gears knew no mercy as Dalia Carson, Matt's former squad mate kicked into the floor and shot it to death with her lancer. The last karn turned to run but instead walked right into a Echo squad gear with short black hair, and hazel eyes gleaming with hate. The karn bummed into him and took a few steps back as he revved the chainsaw of his lancer and lunched catching the creature right at the shoulder. He finished the extremely gory execution with a laugh, "Damn! Feel sorry for whatever employee has to clean up this mess!"

Matt just smiled as all of Rico squad began moving towards their saviors with smiles. "Looks like we arrived just in time," a balding gear with glasses and huge mustache said as he entered the store. Matt grinned at the old comrade, "It's been awhile Eck."


	5. Chapter 4

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad **

**Chapter 4: Old Friends and Enemy Tactics**

Both Squads watched as Matt and Lt. Eckhart clasped hands together and shook both grinning ear to ear. The two gears had been long time friends and comrades throughout the Locust war. Even during the Lambent invasion they had fought in the same squad along with Cor. Dalia Carson. They were what most people would call, best friends.

"Good to see you in person Lt. Dunbar," Eckhart laughed heftily as he took a step back from Matt.

"Yeah, you too, how have you been Eck?" The question made Eckhart's mouth smirk slightly beneath his bushy mustache.

"Alright, was managing a restaurant before this damn war came around". Matt nodded, Eckhart was always quite the cook he recalled.

"Um guys, I would love to stand and chit chat all day, but maybe we should get going and find trapped civilians". It was the gear from Echo Squad with the dreads who had spoke. He was of average height wearing sleeveless armor that showed off his muscular arms well.

"Corporal Damon Mielke is right, Dunbar, think we should stick together?" Matt glanced at the Corporal who had spoke briefly then back to Eckhart frowning.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think my squad is low on ammo," Matt said uncertainly as he looked around at the bloody karn corpses at his feet. "Rico Squad, let's do an ammo count!" He suddenly ordered.

Instantly Rico Squad obeyed by checking their lancers and other weapons. It wasn't exactly a surprise when most of them realized they only had a clip or two left.

"You guys burnt through ammo fast," Dalia, the female gear Matt had rode the elevator the day before with, spoke. Eckhart turned to his old squad mate smiling wryly.

"And you're saying you wouldn't have?" A different Echo Squad gear questioned. He was the one that had chain sawed the last karn, and Matt could tell it was obvious he didn't speak often due to the reaction of Dalia.

"N-no," she stammered not knowing what else to say. Suddenly the last member of Echo Squad hopped over the check out counter appearing the most bizarre of all the gears in the store. Hanging out of the back of his helmet was long green hair, and as if that wasn't enough, his sleeveless arms were literally covered in tattoos. Matt instantly recognized the young soldier from the Lambent invasion.

Leonardo did too. Instantly he walked up to the gear and gave him a huge high five laughing loudly. "It's good to see you Mike!" The gear nodded and replied just as loudly.

"You too Leonardo, damn it's been way too fucking long!" Eckhart watched the two then looked at Matt who was staring. Both Lieutenants knew about what the two did together in the Lambent invasion. Both Leonardo and Mike were known for rushing into battle together without any hesitation and slaughtering enemies together in mere minutes. It was impressive, but it almost always put their lives at risk.

"That's Cor. Simmons, and yes, you may know him by Mike 'Mayhem' Simmons, but more importantly, you guys need ammo?" Eckhart's question snapped Matt out of his old war memories.

"Yeah Eck, I'd say we could all go for some," he answered making the Echo Squad Lieutenant nod and lead them outside. All eleven gears followed eagerly and soon were at Echo Squad's armadillo reloading in the midday's sunlight.

Matt glanced down the street at the karn they had killed earlier. Sure enough the corpses still lay in pools of blood destroying the rumor he had heard yesterday about karn coming back to life…

The stupid rumor had been formed because of the karn's impressive survival of the light mass bombing, hammer strikes, sinking of Jacinto, and the lambent invasion. In reality, no one knew how the karn had managed to survive the events. Matt's personal thought was that they dug in deep after losing to the locust and never came close enough to the surface to be effected by the events. But even that sounded wrong.

"Okay, so what's next?" Pvt. Fixer asked eagerly as he rubbed his wrapped arm with what looked like discomfort.

"Now we find the civilians," Cor. Downey spoke up making Fixer turn towards him. The Private nodded and turned away making Downey roll his eyes humorously. Cor. Stiletto, the black haired gear who sort of had a five o'clock shadow like Downey, caught Downey's expression and chuckled.

"What's so funny Stiletto?" Cor. Carson questioned making the man shrug and seal his lips.

She shook her head as Eckhart got to business. "Alright, HQ said we should split up to cover more ground Lt. Dunbar". Matt nodded thoughtfully and was surprised to hear Emily make a wise suggestion.

"Should we leave two people here with the armadillo to ensure it doesn't get salvaged by stranded or destroyed?" The veteran gears looked at the red haired girl nodding in agreement.

"Any volunteers then? Cause I sure as hell aren't going sit around, me and Leonardo got bitches to kill!" Cor. Simmons was the one who had made the profane comment as Eckhart scratched his head.

"I'll stay Lieutenant. I'm a driver anyways, might as well make sure nothing happens to our ride out of here," Cor. Downey stepped forward. The group then decided that Pvt. Hefresson would be the other.

"Now that that's settled, let's break off by squad. Matt you take Rico Squad down the street to the left, and we'll take the street towards the square," Lt. Eckhart ordered. Without any disagreements the gears then split off leaving Emily and Downey to sit on top of the armadillo somewhat bored looking.

"Shit, I'm going to regret volunteering," Cor. Downey said as soon as the others were out of ear shot. Emily smiled at him brightly.

"Yep," was all she said just as Rico Squad disappeared behind the corner of the buildings to her left. Echo Squad was still visible however, and she watched with an expression of concern for both squads. "I hope they'll be alright….. Oh crap! I forgot to stitch Fixer's arm!"

**XVX**

Since the two squads had split, Echo Squad finally reached the downtown square. It was a large grassy area, scattered with benches and a large fountain in the middle. Civilian cars lined the streets around it and it was obvious that karn had been here.

"Stay sharp soldiers, this ain't gonna be a walk in the park," Lt. Eckhart said as he stared through a abandoned store window. The rest of his squad was scattered about examining various things. Dalia for example, was staring at the fountain which was still shooting water up into the air normally.

She failed to notice Cor. Miekle walk up behind her. "Nice, isn't it?" The Corporal whipped around on her teammate fiercely then sighed with relief at the sight of him. He grinned at her as she turned her back on him once again and lowered her lancer.

"Don't freak me out like that, one of these times I'm gonna put a bullet in you're head". Damon laughed out loud as he patted her on the back and stalked off along one of the square's many paths. Dalia watched him and smile curtly, maybe she had been a bit harsh.

"I don't get it, why the hell would everyone just leave their cars? I mean, don't they care about them?" Cor. Simmons was asking as he peered through the shattered windshield of a car.

"I don't know, it's kind of like asking why did you dye your hair green isn't it?" Mike turned on Cor. Stiletto hastily and glared at him through the blue eye pieces of his helmet.

The green haired Corporal then walked across the street towards the fountain leaving Stiletto to stare after him with a smile. He enjoyed pestering Mike by answering his questions with even stupider ones.

Lt. Eckhart watched as his squad continuously spanned out around the square. Something wasn't right. It was too damn quiet for the experienced Lieutenant's liking. The karn were supposed to have overrun downtown yet they hadn't seen a single one eyed creature says they rescued Rico Squad at the store.

"No civilians hiding in the cars!" Damon yelled from across the square making Eckhart nod. He wasn't surprised, in fact, it's what the Lieutenant had expected.

Dalia still stood taking in the beauty of the fountain. She enjoyed the peaceful days after the Lambent invasion when humanity could finally rebuild what was left of their race. But now, it seemed to all be crumbling again, right before their faces.

Mike stopped at a bench dripping with blood and dropped into a crouch to swipe his finger across it. Damon was soon standing next to him, his dreads hanging lower than usual as he stared down at the bench. "Blood?" For once Mike nodded without saying anything. Damon immediately looked up from the bench towards Eckhart but that's when he saw it.

Directly above Eckhart on one of the rooftops he could make out the gray figure with a bucket shaped head. _Wait, that's a_… "SNIPER!"

Damon's yell echoed the square allowing all members of his squad to duck in cover as several ear piercing shots rang out destroying benches and cars alike. "Get in cover!" Lt. Eckhart hollered seconds before the shots rang out again, preventing all of Echo Squad from leaving their current spots.

Obeying their orders, Mike, Damon, and Dalia all ran across the street to jump behind a car just as another shot popped the tire on the vehicle. Cor. Stiletto also made it to safety near Eckhart, but that didn't change the fact that the snipers held the advantage from above.

Echo Squad was under a rain of sniper shots, and their was nothing they could do about it.

**XVX**

Meanwhile, Rico Squad was in no trouble what so ever. In fact, the group of four had been walking for nearly the entire time with little action. The only action they had seen since they departed from the armadillo was a stray cat, and that wasn't much to talk about. It was finally Corey, who broke the silence.

"I recognize this street," he announced as he stared at the street sign making the others stop to stare back at him. "Yeah, yeah, Matt this is where she moved in!"

The Lieutenant's face became one of confusion, "She? Who's she?" Corey practically dropped his lancer in shock at his leader's poor memory.

"My friend's wife Amy, remember, I talked to you about her yesterday?" The Corporal exclaimed as he ran past Matt towards a large building that read _Russell's Apartments_. The rest of the squad watched in interest, they had no clue what Corey was talking about as he kicked through the wooden doors into the building. Leaving them no choice, his squad mates followed the Corporal inside.

"Look, Corey, don't be stupid!" Matt called as he stepped inside the lobby only to find out Corey was nowhere in sight. Fixer and Leonardo were equally confused on where he disappeared to.

"Where did he go?" Fixer asked in a higher pitched voice than usual. Leonardo shrugged heavily and looked over the lobby's desk.

"I don't know," Matt replied as he started up the stairs and gazed straight up. "My guess is he's up there".

"Why? Who's this Amy he's looking for?" Fixer was flabbergasted simply as he followed the Lieutenant up the stairs with Leonardo bringing up the rear.

"I don't know," was all Matt said as he stopped on the first floor checking down the hall. Fixer looked the opposite direction as Leonardo lumbered up behind him.

"It was curiosity that killed the cat," he said grimly making Fixer turn to him.

"And we did see a cat today, so I guess that might be true".

Matt shook his head at the stupid conversation as he passed Fixer just as a loud bang was heard a level above. Then a feminine scream was heard that sent all three Rico Squad members sprinting up the stairs to the next level.

"COREY!" Matt was yelling for the Corporal's name but he didn't get a response as he reached the second floor hallway.

Matt quickly spotted Corey however, at the end of the hall standing in the doorway of one of the apartments. He was focused intensely on something in the room, and Matt made a slow cautious approach towards him. Corey barely acknowledged the Lieutenant as Matt slid against the wall next to the doorway. Very slowly, he peeked his bald head around the wall to see something he had never expected.


	6. Chapter 5

**Gears of War: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 5: Amy Jackson**

The situation hadn't improved for Echo Squad as all five gears were still trapped in cover with the bucket headed snipers watching them. If any of them so much as took a step out of cover, they would most likely lose a leg.

Lt. Eckhart had just finished stressing this to Cor. Stiletto who understood completely. However, their was no way to pass this information to his teammates across the square from them. Eckhart seeing no other choice, grasped his comm. Link and spoke into it.

"HQ and all other search and rescue squads, this Lt. Eckhart of Echo squad, we are in immediate request of back up". Eckhart paused and stared at Stiletto who returned the look with urgency.

After a few buzzes of static he finally got a response, but not what he wanted to hear. "Lieutenant, this is Maria from HQ, we have lost contact with all other search and rescue squads and have reason to believe they are KIA". Eckhart's eyes widened in shock behind his glasses and Stiletto knew that look too well.

"What? What is it Eck?" He demanded but Eckhart ignored him as Maria continued to talk.

"Bravo Squad was the last squad we heard from and that was over an hour ago. Since then we've had no contact and were wondering what was going on with you guys. For some reason we haven't been able to contact Lt. Dunbar of Rico squad either".

Eckhart shook himself, "Lt. Dunbar and Rico Squad are fine as far as I know. Is there any way you can contact an armadillo?"

There was a brief pause long enough for a sniper shot to echo around the square and smash the tire of the car Dalia and the others hid behind. Stiletto watched it, "That's a waste," he said with a hint of humor making Eckhart frown slightly.

"Yes, we can, do you have the armadillo's particular number?" Maria's voice was cheerful for once but Eckhart's frown only deepened.

"Shit. Corporal what the hell was the number on our armadillo?" Stiletto rolled his eyes in thought and began hitting his lancer against the cement trying to remember.

"Hell if I know," he finally said making Eckhart punch the car they used for cover. As a response, a bullet flew through the windshield causing both Eckhart and Stiletto to drop to the ground. "These guys mean business," Stiletto said dismally before sitting up causing something sliver to slip out of his pocket. The second in clanged on the ground Eckhart snatched it and recognized it as their driver's cog tag. He had been sniped before Echo Squad went to assist Rico Squad at the store.

Eckhart stared long and hard at the tag while Maria's voice pestered him. "Lieutenant Eckhart? Are you still there? Lieutenant?" Finally the Lieutenant spotted what he wanted, engraved in the tag beneath the driver's rank was his vehicle. _Armadillo 0619. _

With new found energy he spoke, "YES! I'm here Maria, and I got the vehicle number, its armadillo 0619". Maria let forth what sounded like a joyful squeal.

"Okay, we'll send a distress to you're vehicle, you have gears there I assume?" Lt. Eckhart checked his lancer's clip to make it sure was full and told Stiletto to do the same before responding.

"Yes, two. Pvt. Hefresson of Rico Squad and Cor. Downey who is a driver. Tell them we need back up in the square, and that were pinned down by snipers."

"Right away Lieutenant, hang in there". With a buzz of static Eckhart could tell she was no longer on their channel. At least he now knew that they had some back up on the way. But what really disturbed him is that all other search and rescue squads could possibly be dead.

The thought pricked at the back of his mind and Stiletto noticed. "What's going on, Emily and Jon on their way?" Eckhart nodded without saying anything, and respecting his mood, Stiletto remained silent too.

**XVX**

Matt's eyes didn't believe what he saw in the apartment room. Standing in the middle of the filthy room was a woman, she looked about thirty, but she wasn't the issue. The issue was the massive white creature that had one thick muscular arm wrapped around her throat and a boltok pistol to her head.

Matt and Corey stood both unsure of what to do. Even Fixer and Leonardo were silent as they stared from behind Corey. If any of them moved, the karn simply pulled the trigger. If they tried to shoot the karn, they ran the risk of shooting the woman, or killing the karn and having it pull the trigger as it fell. Things were simply not in their favor.

After a long pause, the one eyed creature shocked them by opening its mouth and speaking in a voice so low, it made Leonardo's sound like a five year old's. "Greeting humans," it said gruffly.

Corey gulped and Matt continued to stare in uncertainty. "You obviously wish for this puny girl to live… why?" The question seemed hollow, as if the thing would rather just blow her head off and be done with it.

Corey got the courage to speak, "Because she's a friend," he said maybe a little too sharply Matt thought. Luckily it didn't upset the thing.

The karn lifted his head up and bellowed with laughter before fixating his one eye on the gears once again. "If you wish for this woman to live, drop you're weapons". His voice had a seriousness to it and Matt ordered all guns to the floor almost immediately.

Fixer and Corey hesitantly obeyed and dropped their guns, but when Matt turned to find Leonardo, he wasn't behind them.

"Good, now prepare to-", it never finished the sentence as a booming voice finished the sentence for him, "DIE"! Suddenly the wooden wall beside the karn smashed over taking both the karn and woman to the floor. Rico squad watched in shock as Leonardo emerged from the wall in the cloud of dust and aimed at the karn with his sawed off. But before he could pull the trigger the karn kicked his feet out from beneath him, sending him to the ground hard.

The karn then stood menacingly with his boltok and shot upwards into the ceiling. That was all he managed before he was pelted to the ground in a splash of blood from Matt, Corey, and Fixer. All three then rushed in to help the girl and Leonardo back to their feet. The whole event, only lasted about thirty seconds.

"Are you okay Amy?" Corey was all over the woman as he helped her up hastily. She let out a loud sigh of relief and brushed her dusty hair out of her face and smiled weakly.

"Yes, I'm fine," she said just as Matt and Fixer stood Leonardo up.

"God damn bastard," Leonardo shouted before lifting his boot and smashing the creature's head into a bloody mess. Amy turned away with a little cry and Corey led her out of the room a little angry at Leonardo.

Matt turned to Leonardo, "Was that really necessary?" He demanded making Leonardo smile and scratch his messy beard.

"The bastard nearly killed me, no one lives after they nearly do that". Fixer took off his helmet to reveal his youthful face, he was smiling but quickly made a straight face when Matt showed his disapproval.

"Keep violence to a minimal Sergeant Rhodes, were in the presence of a civilian," with that last comment Matt turned and walked out into the hall. Leonardo and Fixer stayed put and before long, were searching the room for anything of use.

"I'm sorry about that. You must be Amy I'm guessing?" This was Matt's greeting as he walked out to Amy and a helmetless Corey. Amy nodded and stared at him hard for a moment.

"You're Matt Dunbar, right?" Matt looked at Corey who was staring at the floor somewhat weirdly. It was as if he was unhappy.

Matt then looked back at the girl and smiled, "Yes, that would be me".

She grinned at him and patted Corey on the back. "Well thanks for coming out here to find me. I thought, that might be the end back there," her voice trailed off as her eyes fell to the floor. In a matter of seconds she broke down, crying like a little girl as she slumped down against the wall and Corey immediately squatted with her trying to comfort her.

"Amy you're okay, it's over. Look, the bastard is dead. Don't worry," his words were full of comfort but Matt could tell he wasn't getting through very well. Wiping her eyes she turned to him as more tears flowed down her face.

"No, it's not okay and it's not over. There are still thousands, fucking millions of those things. My husband died fighting in war, and ten years later were still fighting a war. Will it ever end!" She began to sob once more and Corey looked up at Matt guiltily. There was a look of hurt on his face as he tried to decide on what to say.

"Amy look, were going to finish this once and for all okay?" Amy refused to look at him and instead stared at her feet. Tears still running down her face as Corey reached his arms across to her shoulders and shook her, "Okay?"

Through watery eyes she brought her gaze back up to his and stared into his green eyes. Her vision then dropped down to his right arm where she couldn't help but smile a little. Corey followed her gaze to his arm then back to her face.

"You… remember getting t-that, with him?" The question made no sense to Matt as he watched. He quickly realized however, that they were talking about Amy's husband when Corey nodded at the tattoo of the withered rose on his arm.

"Yes, I remember that day Amy, look, theirs no way I'd forget it. But if you want to finish all of this, you have to be strong. It's what he would've wanted for you".

Matt watched as Corey's comforting finally broke through and the woman embraced Corey in a hug. "Thank you," she sniffled before standing and wiping the water from her face. "I needed that".

Corey smiled at her and put his helmet back on. Matt turned happily and reentered the apartment where Leonardo and Fixer were. Leonardo was nowhere to be seen but Fixer was staring out the window. Matt could literally feel the tension radiating from the rookie.

"Fixer, what is it?" Matt grabbed the young gear's shoulder and spun him around.

"We've got company, and they're asking for an ass kicking," was all Fixer said causing Matt to move him aside and peer out the window. Sure enough, at least twenty gray skinned bodies were assembling in the street below. Two had boom shots and several had hammer burst and gnashers. _This wasn't going to be easy… _


	7. Chapter 6

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 6: True Gears**

The sun was just dipping behind the buildings overhead, showering the deserted city with it's orange rays. Emily watched it in silence while Cor. Downey sat against the armadillo on the pavement. Both gears had their lancers near by and were watching for movement constantly.

"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Her question sounded distant and far off to Jon, but he answered none the less.

"To be honest with you, not necessarily, they might be rounding up survivors, but they should be on their way by now". Emily sighed in disbelief. Surely they were making their way back… unless they ran into trouble.

Suddenly the armadillo shot an antenna from its hood and emitted a beeping noise. Out of instinct Emily jumped off the armadillo aiming her lancer only to realize what it was. "What's it doing?"

Jon approached it slowly and climbed inside the driver seat to push a button on the dash. "Hello? Hello? Is anyone reading this transmission? Hello!"

He pushed the green button next to it and spoke into the microphone above him. "Yes, this Corporal Jon Downey, are we speaking to HQ?"

"Yes I'm Maria, listen, Lt. Eckhart of Echo Squad is requesting immediate back up. He and his squad are pinned down in the square by enemy snipers." Downey flashed a look of urgency at Emily who returned the look with an expression of shock.

"Okay, thank you Maria, tell him were on our way," Downey shut off the radio, "Get in." Emily obeyed by hopping into the seat next to him just as Downey revved the engine. "Let's go save Eck."

**XVX**

Leonardo watched the last flame grenade Fixer had as it plummeted to the stairs igniting them with fire. Leonardo gave the Private a thumbs up and Fixer ran back to the window leaving Leonardo by the stairs.

"Fixer did you stop those Blitzers?" Rollard asked. The Private nodded as he squatted down next to him staring out the window through his helmet.

"Shit theirs so many," Fixer exclaimed as a boomshot rocket slammed into the side of the apartment. Corey ignored it and instead focused his shot. He inhaled deeply and waited until the crosshairs lined up perfectly with the yellow beady eye of the boom shot wielder. Then with a simple pull of the trigger, he watched the fountain of blood as the karn crashed to the ground dead. "Nice shot!"

In the room over Amy was sitting against the wall while Matt unleashed a fury of lancer fire upon the attacking karn. However, the karn were smart and would lean out all the same time, forcing Matt to stop and take cover.

"Son of a bitch," Matt yelled as he dropped the clip of his lancer and jammed another one into the weapon. He was running out fast.

Amy watched him as he placed the lancer on the windowsill and pointing it downwards, pulled the trigger. It was an obvious waste of ammo, but Matt was desperate. "Matt, their's ammo up stairs, me and some of the others tried to hold out here a few days back." Matt turned on her giving her a stupid look.

"And you wait until now to tell us? Go get it and bring it down, we need some." Nodding Amy stood and passed Leonardo who just gunned down a Blitzer that successfully dived over the fire.

"The stupid bastards are getting smarter!" Matt merely glanced at Leonardo before standing and killing a karn with lucky shots. He then dived back down to the ground just as a rocket smashed through the wall beside him, shattering the rest of the wall that separated him from Corey and Fixer.

Matt looked up at both of them through the smoke and couldn't help but laugh at the massive gap between them. Even Fixer and Corey forgot about the enemy and laughed. It wasn't until a barrage of hammer burst fire reminded them that they were in battle.

"Come on guys, let's finish this!" Fixer yelled triumphantly as he stood at his window killing a karn with well placed retro shots. The creatures then began shooting at him allowing Matt to pick another one off.

Amy finally came back down past Leonardo dropping all the ammo in the doorway behind Matt. Her face was full of fear and she quickly moved behind the wall next to Leonardo in the hallway. "It's not safe there, go up." Amy nodded and frantically scampered up the stairs to the higher levels while Leonardo kicked the ammo boxes towards Matt.

"Thanks!" Matt called making Leonardo salute before leaning out to waste a Blitzer with a perfect sawed off shot. It let out a squeal of pain as it exploding into chunks of flesh, making Leonardo grin as two more followed.

Slowly things began going the gears way. Corey sniped the other boom shot user while Matt and Fixer reloaded. It was then a matter of patience. One by one they would concentrate their fire on a single karn until it was dead. Then they would move on. After about an hour of shooting they finally could stand, wipe their brows, and let out a sigh of relief.

"I knew we could do it," Fixer said as he un strapped his comm. pack and plopped it on the floor beside him. Matt shook his head at the Private before turning to stare out the huge gap in the building. Below, the street was littered with bloody karn corpses and weapons.

Slowly Amy came back down the stairs. "Is it over?" Corey nodded and she immediately ran over to hug him. "Thank you". Matt was unsure of Corey's expression because of his helmet, but if Matt had to guess, he was pretty sure Corey was smiling.

"Are their any other civilians around?" Corey suddenly got back to business making Amy frown and shake her head.

"No, they all died within the first week, well, at least everyone living here did". Matt wasn't surprised, civilians never could defend themselves well.

"In that case we should make our way back to the armadillo," Matt said as he turned to face the group. Everyone nodded in agreement except Leonardo who stared at the chunks of karn on the burnt stairs.

"Were lucky we didn't toast the stairs," Fixer said as he walked over the railing and peered over.

Matt smiled a little and shook his bald head. "Grab all the ammo you can and let's get out of here". Slowly his squad obeyed, and soon they were leaving the apartment building Amy once called home.


	8. Chapter 7

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 7: Snipers**

Lt. Eckhart's face was still contorted into a large frown as he stared across the downtown square at his squad mates. From his cover behind the car, he could clearly see all three of them. All of them were lying down on their stomachs. It wasn't good cover, considering the snipers above just needed the right movement to shoot through the glass, but it was all they had.

Cor. Stiletto followed his gaze and frowned as well. Normally humorous, Stiletto couldn't find anything to say. So instead he merely watched the sniper on the roof across the square. Its beady yellow eye through its bucket like helmet seemed to be locked on him and Eckhart.

"Think if I run out and distract them, we could get some sort of plan going?" Stiletto's comment made Eckhart turn to him. The Lieutenant brushed his large mustache for a moment before shaking his head.

"You getting killed won't help. And based on their skills so far, I reckon they're not gonna miss". Stiletto peeled his gaze away from his Lieutenant's glasses and instead stared at the sniper again. It was still gazing down at them now aiming its gun.

Eckhart put his hand to his ear again and spoke into the comm. "Maria, did you get word to Pvt. Hefresson and Cor. Downey?"

After a dreadful wait of nothing but static, he heard her feminine voice clearly. "Yes, both of them should be on their way, hang tight Lt. Eckhart".

Nodding Eckhart gripped his lancer tighter. So tight, that his knuckles turned white. Surely he could do something! Or at least Emily and Jon could hurry!

**XVX**

Across the square a very desperate conversation was going on. Cor. Carson and Cor. Simmons were in a huge disagreement; Cor. Mielke was trying to sort it out.

The female gear shook her head angrily again and stared into the visor of Mike's helmet. "No, it's suicide! If you so much as take three steps you'll be wasted!"

Mike led out and emphasized sigh. "Dalia I could do it! And while I'm sprinting to the car north of the fountain you two can give the sniper hell." Dalia shook her head and gave a look of utter frustration. Mike was being a child!

"For the last time… NO!" Cor. Mielke scratched his dreads uncertainly and stared up at one of the four snipers looking down on the square.

"I don't know Dalia, what other options do we really have? I mean, if you and I take out one sniper, maybe Eckhart and Stiletto could take out another". Now the female gear whipped on him.

"No damn it! Don't you two get it, these snipers don't miss! They explained it over and over again at the HQ!" Mielke, who normally liked to joke around a bit, gave her a look of complete discouragement.

"So what do you suggest we do then Dalia? We can't just sit here, and I know how much we would all love to lie down and take a nap but we can't sit here!" Mielke was expecting her to slap him but instead it was Mike then made her react for.

Mielke took a deep breath. "Okay, about how this. What if I leave my weapons here and take just my boltok and sneak towards the fountain. Watch them, right when they aim at me take you're guns and waste them. Meanwhile I'll run like hell for cover."

His idea was taken badly as his squad mates shook their heads. They didn't even have to say how bad Mielke's idea was. He already knew so.

"I guess were stuck then, huh?" Mielke stared at the pavement beneath him dismally. Mike and Dalia finally stopped arguing and for once silence took over. It only lasted about five seconds however, before Mike stood and charged forward recklessly.

"Fuck you!" his screams of battle and shots echoed the square forcing his teammates to watch. He made it about twenty yards from Dalia and Mielke before a loud sniper shot was heard. Immediately the green haired gear fell face first, skidding in a cloud of dust.

"Oh my god… Mike you idiot," Dalia gasped in horror as she felt water begin to well up in her eyes. Miekle merely shook his head and put a firm hand on her shoulder. It didn't take long for her to begin to sob.

Dalia was a fierce soldier. But when it came to fallen team mates, she was as fierce as a four year old. Even Eckhart and Stiletto knew this as they stared at their fallen gear in horror. Despite the reckless act Mike performed, none of Echo squad was surprised by it. In fact, Eckhart had known it was only a matter of time before the headstrong Corporal did so, that's why he hoped Emily and Jon would of arrived sooner. _Sadly… that didn't happen. _


	9. Chapter 8

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 8: Returning the Favor**

The city streets were empty and desolate as Cor. Downey sped through them. He wasted no time. Every turn was sharp, causing Emily to slide which ever direction and his speed was unchallenged. It was only a matter of minutes before they reached the square.

"Okay… obviously they're in trouble. So we can't just go in blazing, so here's my idea". Emily brushed her red hair out of her face and stared at him awaiting his idea. But Jon was preoccupied with hitting the lone karn standing in the road ahead. _Bang!_ There was brief screech that left a smile of pleasure on the driver's face.

"Road kill! Okay any ways, here's the plan. These vehicles have built in smoke grenades; see where I'm going with this?" Emily nodded and stared through the window thoughtfully.

"You're suggesting we use them as a distraction and pile everyone in, then get out?" Jon smiled at the Private happily. She was a bright one.

"Exactly." The driver replied just as he took another sharp left revealing the corner of the square about three hundred yards away. "Here we go, get ready."

With a stomp, his boot collided with the gas and the armadillo sped forward. From the square you could hear it like a bell and soon everyone, including the karn snipers, were facing its direction. As soon as the vehicle emerged the karn snipers began taking aim. But Jon was quicker and launched two large balls out onto the grassy square exploding into thick, gray smoke.

Echo squad caught on fast. "EVERYONE GET IN NOW!" Eckhart's yell echoed across the square like a siren as he and Stiletto bolted towards the armadillo. Sniper shots echoed and every where they stepped grass and dirt shot up from the powerful bullets. Jon was literally doing donuts in the square trying to avoid getting hit as Eckhart and Stiletto scrambled into the vehicle.

"You guys alright!" Emily exclaimed immediately getting a brief nod. The Lieutenant attempted to adjust his glasses before regaining his breath. He definitely wasn't as young as he used to be.

"Were fine," he huffed, "but Corporals Carson and Mielke are still out there." Emily looked at Jon desperately but he was too busy spinning the wheel.

"God damn it, tell them to hurry!" Jon simply yelled in frustration as a bullet hit the hood of the vehicle. Eckhart nodded and before he could react Emily was out the door sprinting.

"Pvt. Hefresson get back here!" Eckhart's yell was futile and soon Stiletto was right behind her out of the armadillo.

The smoke was beginning to disperse and they were becoming easier targets by the second. "Where are they?" Emily skidded down behind a piece of rubble and took a few shots with her lancer at a sniper. It was useless, but made the sniper lose its concentration.

"Over there Emily!" Stiletto pointed towards Mielke who was shooting with Carson at the snipers. "Dalia, Damon, let's go!" His yell was heard and both squad mates instantly sprinted towards them. Now the smoke was completely gone as all four gears rushed for the still spinning armadillo. Emily could literally feel her heart beat as she leapt into the vehicle with the others close behind.

"Go, go, go!" Jon nodded and with an unhappy expression stomped on the gas. Hitting a street light they sped down the road away from the four enraged snipers in the square.

When they were thirty seconds away from the square Stiletto decided it was a good time for a joke. "Well that was fun."

Jon laughed loudly at the sarcasm. "Were just returning the favor for earlier today," Emily took the opportunity to say it. _All of the gears seemed joyful,, only Dalia was still thinking about Mike… _

**XVX**

"EMILY!" It was Fixer's tenth time yelling her name with no response. His helmet was off and his face was full of desperation. "EMILY!"

"Fixer calm down," Corey grabbed the Private by his shoulders and shook him. Fixer's eyes stared at him blankly then he nodded and dropped his gaze to his feet unhappily.

"If you didn't stop soon every karn within a mile would be attacking us," Sgt. Rhodes said dismally. The comment made the Private feel worse then he already did. He was sick with worry for how they would escape but he was also just as worried about Emily. It was weird really. _Why did he care for her so much?_ Is it because they were both Privates and in the same squad? He was unsure, but in his head he made a decision.

Suddenly putting his helmet back on and adjusting his comm. pack he passed Amelia gripping his father's retro tightly. "Hey, Fixer, where are you going!" Matt's voice stopped him for only a moment before he continued walking away from the group.

"I'm going to find them!" Matt scratched his goatee and shook his head in disbelief. Corey glanced at him and then walked passed Amelia after Fixer.

"I'll be right back." She nodded uncertainly and watched as the veteran gear took after Fixer.

He quickly reached the Private and spun him around. "Let go of me man!" Fixer pushed the Corporal off him aggressively causing Corey to stop and stare. "You're not stopping me, so either come with me or stay here, I don't care!"

Corey sighed, "Fixer come on, you're usually calmer and smarter than this. You know as well as we do that going by yourself in this city is suicide. Besides, without you're comm. pack we can't contact HQ and they might know where Emily and Jon are". Fixer considered Corey's argument for a moment then slowly replied.

"You're… right," he sounded displeased with himself. But Corey made sure to fix that and placed a prideful hand on his shoulder to encourage him.

"Trust me, you're doing the right thing". With an uncertain nod Fixer began following Corey back towards the group standing in the street.

Matt smiled as the two helmeted gears were returning. If there was anyone Matt knew who had a way with words, it'd have to be Corey. "Um, excuse me, Lt. Dunbar, is that them," Amelia pointed behind him. Matt turned his bald head and sure enough spotted a beat up armadillo coming towards them.

"Yeah that's them." He waved to Corey and Fixer causing them to hurry up and join the group just as the armadillo came to a skidding stop. Rico Squad then waited patiently as all of Echo Squad gathered their things and climbed out.

"Lt. Dunbar, how'd you're side of things go," Lt. Eckhart immediately approached Matt. The rest of the gears gathered in sort of a circle. Emily and Fixer reunited briefly by smiling at each other then pretending to look away. As for the rest of the gears they stood awkwardly watching the Lieutenants talk.

"It went good; she was the only survivor we found though." Matt indicated Amelia who eyed the other gears suspiciously. "Other than that not much to tell, what about you guys?"

Lt. Eckhart rubbed his mustache and glanced at Stiletto who was frowning. "Not so good Dunbar, we've lost a comrade". Gasps of shock went around Rico's side of the circle and Rico squad was quick to figure out who was missing. Out of Rico squad only one member took it personally.

"WHAT! Mike dead? How? What the hell happened!" Sgt. Rhodes was marching towards Eckhart like a raging rhino. Lt. Eckhart was stunned at the reaction and was soon face to face with the bear of a man.

"He ran out and got shot. There's not much else to say Sergeant." The honest answer only further enraged Leonardo as he kicked a pile of rubble over and punched the armadillo, denting it. "Look the area is crawling with karn, we didn't have time to drag his body".

The comment only added fire to the fuel as Leonardo grabbed Eckhart by the throat. With amazing strength he lifted the Echo Squad Lieutenant, "You… didn't… even… get… his…tags?" The act of anger and hate against their Lieutenant sent both Mielke and Stiletto at Leonardo.

Both gears tackled the bigger gear to the ground causing Eckhart to fall on his bottom. Soon all three guards were wrestling in heap of yelling and punching. "That's enough!" Matt was yelling but failing to do anything. It was Fixer who interrupted the fight with a loud shot from his gnasher. Instantly all three gears stopped as the rest of the group rushed to pull them apart.

"Look, arguing isn't getting us anywhere men! If you want to kill me go ahead Sergeant, but we need all the help we can get right now!" Eckhart was scowling at the big Sergeant who brushed himself off menacingly.

Suddenly an unexpected voice rang in both Lieutenants ears causing them to freeze. "Lieutenants Eckhart and Dunbar, can you hear me?" Eckhart quickly recognized the voice of Maria and put his hand to his ear.

"Yes we hear you Maria, go ahead and speak". Matt copied the other Lieutenant and everyone was now straining to hear her voice.

"Okay good, listen we have a big issue on our hands. All search and rescue squads are KIA. I repeat KIA. You two are the only remaining squads and they don't want you leaving the city alive. They've set up a huge force full of blockades on the bridge, look if you guys don't start trying to fight you're way through, it might be impossible to leave the city".

Both Lieutenants exchanged a look of concern before replying. "Okay thanks Maria; we'll go straight there then. Do you know how many were talking here?" The feminine voice gave a slight "oh" of worry.

"Close to a hundred I'd say and it's growing. I'm watching from one of our satellites and things don't look good." Matt gave an unhappy frown and Eckhart kicked a rock cursing.

"Alright were going Maria." Eckhart picked up his lancer and faced the group. "Okay listen up, the bridge out of Quinta is loaded with karn, and if we don't go now theirs no guarantee we'll make it out. So here's my suggestion, Jon, take us first then come back for Rico Squad. They've set up barricades so we'll have to leave the armadillo and fight through on foot, it doesn't sound like HQ can spare a raven to come get us either." Jon nodded and everyone put on faces of determination.

"Let's go!" Eckhart waved his arm fiercely sending everyone into a scurry of motion except him and Matt. "Dunbar." Matt turned to his friend, "I'll see you there". With a smile and nod Matt watched Eckhart as he hopped in beside Jon and the armadillo took off leaving Rico squad and Amelia in the empty street.

**XVX**

In a matter of minutes the armadillo arrived on the scene to see a heavily fortified bridge. Tons of gray bodies moved about the bridge shouting things to loudly to understand.

"Those bastards got the bridge locked down tight," Jon said as he stared through the windshield in shock. The rest of Echo squad did the same, none of them enjoying the sight.

"We'll just fight through them," Dalia's voice was sharp with hate as she clicked her lancer. Mielke eyed her mischievously and he rubbed his dread locks.

"What got a boyfriend back at the HQ and you're late for dinner?" Dalia shot him a look making Stiletto laugh lightening the mood a little. Eckhart adjusted his glasses and with a grunt opened the door.

"Let's go, I want everyone behind the rubble by the stop sign, we'll fight forward from there!" Eckhart then turned to Jon patting the driver on the knee. "As soon as we make ourselves noticed, you better drive out like hell back to Rico. I'm not even sure if our ammo is going to last the whole fight." Jon nodded with a serious look on his face and taking that as a confirmation Eckhart leapt out of the vehicle with his squad chasing after him confidently.

As Jon backed up, he could already hear the shots being fired and could already see Echo squad in a state of panic. _This bridge fight was suicide… _


	10. Chapter 9

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 9: Rough Start**

_**Author's Note: I have made a major mistake. In the last chapter I called Amy, Amelia; her name is Amy not Amelia! My apologies… On to the chapter full of blood and gore! **_

Matt stared down the street in utter distress. The armadillo filled with all of Echo Squad had left nearly ten minutes ago and still Cor. Downey hadn't appeared to bring Rico Squad into the fight. Did something happen to Cor. Downey? Could it be that they were already all dead? No, surely HQ would have told Matt something, right?

Just as the Lieutenant moved his hand to his comm. link he heard footsteps turned around to find a helmet less Corey approaching. His face was sweaty and a little worn from the day's events but his eyes still possessed that natural sharpness. "Matt, can I have a word with you?"

Matt stared past Corey to Fixer, Emily, Amy, and Leonardo who were staring with interest. "Sure," he said hesitantly then followed Corey to the far side of the street a good twenty feet from the others.

"What is it you need Corporal?" Matt instantly knew by the look on Corey's face that he preferred they didn't use military naming protocol like Lt. Eckhart did.

"It's about Amy… Look she can't fight, and this bridge battle is complete suicide for her Matt, you know that." Matt turned back to look at the brunette she was watching Fixer who was showing off his comm. pack again.

Matt returned his calm gaze to Corey and locked on to his green eyes. "Look, we can't spare anyone to stay here with her-," Corey cut him off.

"But can't Jon sit in the armadillo with her and stay back or something! I mean come on Matt look at her, she's hungry, tired, theirs no way we can give her a gun and just say don't get shot." Again the bald Lieutenant turned to look at her then sighing turned back to Corey gravely. "Corey, we don't have a choice."

With that last statement Matt turned around and walked away from his squad mate leaving Corey to stare. As soon as Matt reached the others Corey began making his way back, catching the eye of Amy who seemed optimistic. Obviously the conversation hadn't gone the way Corey planned and the rest of Rico Squad knew it.

**XVX**

Meanwhile… "KEEP YOU'RE HEADS DOWN!" Lt. Eckhart had barked the order for the tenth time since Echo Squad had been dropped off.

"How are we supposed to shoot them if we can't even stand," Cor. Mielke demanded as he brushed his dread locks out of his face. Eckhart indicated Cor. Carson behind him, turning the African American gear watched the rainbow haired woman place her lancer on the wall and without looking, pull the trigger.

The lancer shots fired across the battlefield nowhere near hitting their foes on the bridge. "We can't just blind fire Lieutenant!" Eckhart wiped his sweaty brow and let out a loud sigh, "We don't have a choice Corporal."

Frowning, and for once not making jokes, Mielke lifted his retro lancer over the concrete slab and pulled the trigger hoping for the best. Cor. Stiletto and Lt. Eckhart did the same and together Echo Squad blind fired. The karn on the bridge were having no issues avoiding the shots, it was just that they couldn't hit the gears either.

Because of this, both forces were at a stand still, but the next event ended the stand still. For about fifty yards behind Echo Squad was a five story building, and because of the horde of karn in front of them, they had no way of seeing the sniper behind them.

It all happened in slow motion for the veteran Lieutenant; he heard the sniper shot behind him and as a reaction dived down dropping his lancer. Then when he realized he didn't get hit, he stood and ordered a retreat. "GET TO THAT GAS STATION! GO, GO, GO!"

He waved his free arm frantically and scooped the lancer with the other. Blinded by a storm of bullets he stood and clumsily ran across the street with his fellow gears practically falling through the door into the gas station. Once he had recovered and checked himself over, he adjusted his glasses, "Everyone alright?"

The dark realization dawned on him as he looked at both men's gloomy faces and stared out the window. Sure enough, lying in a pool of blood lay the rainbow haired Corporal, her body motionless against the concrete slab. "Is she-," Eckhart interrupted Mielke. "Yeah… yeah son she's dead."

**XVX**

Jon had just arrived with the armadillo seconds ago and already Matt was debating on what to do with Amy. "Well we can't just leaver her here!" Corey argued as he put his helmet back on.

Matt stared at her as she rubbed her shoulder innocently. "I can stay back with her if you want Lieutenant." Emily appeared out of nowhere at Corey's side as she slammed a clip into her lancer. Matt eyed the red head uncertainly and opened his mouth as if to speak.

"Hey! If you guys are done chit chatting, Echo Squad is getting slaughtered!" Jon was sticking his unshaven face out the window yelling. Matt made a quick desicision, "Fine, Emily, stay here, do not go looking for us, you stay in that market until we come back, understood?" The young private nodded and smiled at Amy who returned it gratefully. Matt caught Fixer's expression before he put his helmet back on, he seemed happy for some reason. Was it because Amy wouldn't have to fight or because Emily didn't have to fight?

"Okay great, now come on and get your asses in here, we need to help Echo Squad out now!" Reacting to the urgency of Jon's voice, the rest of Rico Squad piled into the armadillo leaving the two girls alone in the street. Both young female faces disappeared in the rear view mirrors and some how Matt felt like he had made a mistake.

"How worthy do our enemies seem?" Leonardo questioned from the back of the vehicle. Jon shot a glance at him in the rear view mirror, "Oh trust me, they're plenty worthy the way their set up." Matt looked at Jon, he obviously was holding something back. Matt thought about asking, but decided against it.

"Hey, um Lt. Dunbar, do you think Emily will be okay back there by herself?" Fixer's innocent question brought a smile to Matt's face.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, she's proven herself plenty already." Letting his helmeted head bob up and down Fixer remained quiet the rest of the ride until Rico Squad heard the heavy gunfire from the bridge.

Immediately the gears felt there blood rushing, adrenaline pumping, and sweat dripping. "Okay guys, when I shoot these smokes out, were all going to get out and head for-," Jon stopped dead as he turned the corner. The armadillo skidded to a stop.

"Why did we stop?" Fixer stood up just as hammer burst fire began pelting the vehicle, shaking it madly. "What the hell man! Drive us out!" Jon was shaking frantically as the glass began to crack and he spun the armadillo around driving back the way they came.

"I swear that's where I dropped them off," he exclaimed in frustration as Matt put his hand to his ear. "This is Lt. Dunbar, Lt. Eckhart come in!" His initial response was nothing but static but in a few moments Matt heard Eckhart grunt.

"Lt. Dunbar, are you and your boys almost here because we need some serious back up!" Matt looked at Jon as he stopped behind a building blocking them from the bridge's view and the karn's line of fire.

"Yes, were here actually… where are you Eck?" Again a deathly moment of static passed. "There's a gas station Dunbar, just to the east of the bridge, if you take Bridge Street straight to the bridge were the last building on the left across from the stop sign."

"Roger that Eck, were on our way, sit tight!" Without hesitation Matt climbed out of the vehicle, Leonardo, Fixer, Corey, and Jon following unquestioningly. It was finally Fixer that had to ask, "Where are they?"

Matt pressed his back against the wall and peered around the brick building to see the gas station under a storm of bullets. The karn weren't letting Echo Squad leave on there own, that was for sure.

"There in there," he told the Private who shook his head in disbelief. "Better than being dead," Leonardo said getting murmurs of agreement all around.

"So how are we getting in with them Matt?" Corey had asked and at that moment Matt was lost for words. _All he knew was that if Echo Squad wasn't helped soon… they would most certainly be overwhelmed and killed like many gears before them. _


	11. Chapter 10

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 10: Vengeance**

Hammer burst bullet after hammer burst bullet blasted through the shattered windows of the gas station leaving holes in the wall behind Echo Squad. "God damn it, I can't believe that's she's dead!" Damon moved away from one of the windows and swiped several packages of candy to the floor letting out a roar of anger. "We should have done something!"

Lt. Eckhart watched from the opposite side of the gas station. He was powerless to stop the enemy gunfire and he couldn't even keep his own squad under control. The situation was going from bad, to worse.

"Lieutenant, you better get a look at this," called Cor. Stiletto who was sitting against the wall by the door. His rugged face was covered in sweat and dirt as he nodded out the door. Very causally Eckhart waited for a break in fire before poking his balding head out the window.

Sure enough, a pack of karn was moving from the bridge towards Dalia's corpse which lay unmoving. Each one stepping arrogantly as if they had already won the battle. Their beady yellow eyes were fixated on the slab of concrete Echo Squad once hid behind. They were going to confirm Dalia's death…

"Eckhart!" The Lieutenant stared, completely deaf to Stiletto's yells. "Eckhart! What are your orders?" Finally the fifty year old Lieutenant turned and responded.

"Open fire!" Cor. Mielke wasted no time as he ran out the door so fast his dread locks slapped the door frame. Already he was blasting away at the karn with his retro lancer standing in the open. Instantly, two of the karn fell in splashes of blood as the main force of karn from the bridge began raining shots at the gas station once more. Cor. Mielke refused to hide though and instead continued shooting away at the karn by Dalia's body. "Get back in here Corporal, don't be a damn fool!"

Slowly Mielke began backing up, taking slow steps while Eckhart and Stiletto supported him with lancer fire directed at the bridge. Mielke didn't retreat fast enough as one bullet grazed his shoulder pad and another pelted his chest piece dropping to the ground. "Damon, grab my hand I'll pull you in!"

Reaching hopelessly, Stiletto managed to grab hold of the African American gear and pulled him in. "You okay?" Stiletto finally asked when Mielke was safely behind the wall beneath the window.

Huffing, the caramel skinned gear let a bright smile cross his face as moved the dreads out of his sweaty face. "Never been better…," he said sarcastically as ever.

Stiletto smiled then leaned out of the door to shoot a burst of bullets at the karn by Dalia. He missed, but it was difficult to shoot accurately when at least a hundred bullets were coming at you every second. Even the veteran Lieutenant's shots were being very ineffective at hitting the one eyed creatures. Cursing in frustration Lt. Eckhart got back down just as a bullet from one of the closer karn skinned the window sill narrowly missing his head.

He slapped his hand to his ear almost knocking his glasses off, "Lt. Dunbar, would you hurry up damn it! We need back up, now!" There was buzz of static, no response, but Eckhart quickly found out why.

Recognizing the sound of lancer fire Eckhart poked his head just above the window sill to watch Rico Squad emerge from the corner of a building. Matt and Fixer were unleashing hell on the karn by Dalia, while Cor. Downey and Cor. Rollard sprinted towards the gas station.

"Well don't just sit there Corporals! Help these boys in!" Immediately Echo Squad leaned out and began shooting away at the karn by the slab of concrete. The slab was now becoming a slaughtering ground as body after body of karn flopped atop of the other. Finally only one was running back to the bridge; it made it about half way to the first line of sandbags before being gunned down by Cor. Mielke in a splash of blood.

"And another one bites the dust!" He yelled happily just at Cor. Downey and Cor. Rollard entered the gas station.

"Rico Squad, glad you decided to come to our aid," Lt. Eckhart said waving the two into cover next to him. Corey nodded and sat down next to the old Lieutenant checking his lancer's clip. "I'm running low, and I'm pretty sure my Corporals are as well," Eckhart told Corey.

Corey stared at Eckhart thorough his helmet's visor and nodded, he wasn't surprised. "Well were here now, and me and Corey are going to snipe, so here take my lancer clips." Cor. Downey reached around his utility belt and tossed a lancer clip to each member of Echo Squad. It was like feeding chickens the way Echo Squad snatched them and instantly loaded them into their guns.

"Do you guys have a plan Cor. Rollard?" Corey nodded and peeked out the window to watch the karn on the bridge. They weren't currently shooting but instead reinforcing the first line of sandbags. Meanwhile Matt and Pvt. Fixer were moving to the slab of concrete where Dalia lay. Leonardo was nowhere in sight.

"Yeah, Fixer's got a trick up his sleeve; Matt will explain once he gets in here, he's confirming Cor. Carson's death I think." Lt. Eckhart gulped and nodded his head gloomily. Cor. Carson was like a sister to him, he had fought along side her since the Lambent Invasion along with Matt. _And now, all because of his stupidity, the young beautiful woman was dead, hopefully in a better place, than god forsaken Sera..._

**XVX**

Matt ducked down against the slab quickly not giving the karn a chance to even get a shot off. Fixer did the same clumsily, his breathing was heavy and Matt could tell he was wide eyed under his helmet. But despite where they were on the battlefield, Matt set his lancer down and moved toward the lifeless female gear.

Her skin was paler than usual; her blue eyes open wide, and her mouth slightly ajar. When the bullet propelled through her, she didn't even see it coming. Matt sighed loudly, a tear rolled down his cheek dripping from his sweaty face onto the woman's chest. Images of her smiling at him a mere day before flashed in Matt's head.

Finally, unable to stare at her beautiful face any longer, he reached down, shut her eyes and mouth, and gently pulled the cog tags from her neck. Tears now flowed down his face like a river as he plopped to his knees and looked up at the setting sun. "How many more is this damn war going to kill," he whispered.

Suddenly his comm. link blared, "Dunbar, get out of there! We never took out that sniper!" He recognized Lt. Eckhart's voice but didn't react. Instead he slowly turned to Fixer and wrapped Dalia's tags around his lancer.

"Fixer, when I toss this smoke grenade, we break for the gas station, got it?" Pvt. Fixer nodded and looked past Matt at the gas station where the faces of his fellow gears watched. He then noticed something highly dangerous to his squad mates.

"Wait, won't fuel tanks explode if they're shot?" There was a hint of alarm to his voice and Matt turned around slowly staring at the white tanks. "They're empty Fixer," he finally murmured after a second's examination.

"How do you know?" Matt smiled and tossed the grenade causing an eruption of smoke between them and the bridge. "Just trust me," Matt said before standing and running across the street to the gas station with Pvt. Fixer right behind him.

Meanwhile, from the roof of a building behind the two gears, a single eyed creature stared down the scope of its rifle. The crosshairs were bobbing up and down as it tried to line up its shot on the gears. Finally he inhaled and moved his chubby finger into the trigger guard. Then it heard the heavy breathing…

"I wouldn't… do that… if I were you," a cold voice said. The karn lowered the rifle jerking its head in the direction of Leonardo. "Have a nice fall!" Leonardo yelled seconds before raising his double barrel shotgun and obliterating the karn sniper. Leonardo then sat down against the overhang of the building, right next to the bloody chunks of the once living creature. He eyed it unhappily, "I always hated snipers," he muttered just as the sun disappeared in the horizon. _Dark had finally fallen…_

**XVX**

"I'm glad you decided to wait for the others in here instead of the market," Amy said thoughtfully as she sat down on a rather dusty looking couch. Emily set her lancer down on the nightstand of the apartment room and peered out the window down to the market's street which was littered with karn corpses.

The red haired Private turned back to the brunette and smiled brightly. "I just figured it might smell better in here then out there," she replied before sitting down in an armchair.

Amy returned the smile and stared at the gear with curiosity slowly overtaking her. "Emily, how old are you?" Surprised Emily's green eyes lit up as she stroked her hair out of her face.

"I'm twenty four… why do you ask?" The Private frowned as Amy's smile remained and her eyes seem to envy her. "Because most people don't join the Cog until twenty one, and a girl as young and beautiful as you shouldn't be fighting." Emily's gaze slowly went to the carpeted floor as if suddenly tired.

"Originally I wanted to be a doctor," she murmured half heartedly. Amy's eyes widened and her face twisted into one of concern. Her intention wasn't to cause Emily grief. She just wanted a girl to girl chat. "But then I found out I could help people more… if I fought in the war for the Cog." Amy frowned and stood slowly moving towards Emily where she placed two firm hands on her shoulder pads.

Emily instantly looked up in awe, "You're a very smart girl Emily. If I were you, I would have done the exact same thing."

"Really, you would have?" Amy closed her eyes and nodded slowly, then letting go of Emily sat back down on the couch. Emily was flabbergasted as she stared at Amy in silence. Amy simply stared back smiling weakly at the young gear's confusion. The two women had been alone together for nearly two hours now, and these two hours were the first time either of them had felt safe all day.

"When I was you're age and the Pendulum wars were taking place, I wanted to join the Cog. But my parents wouldn't let me go and instead I meant my husband who happened to be Corey's best friend. Long story short, my husband joined and I didn't, did Corey tell you the rest?" Amy's tone was depressing making her hard to listen to.

Emily shook her head slowly. Amy smiled wryly and nodded, "That doesn't surprise me. Corey never liked telling his past, especially when they involved former squad mates' deaths which is my husband's case." Emily's eyes widened, this must be why Corey went through so much trouble to find Amy. Now what Fixer was telling her earlier about Corey going nuts while they waited for the armadillo made so much more sense!

"So he died fighting for the Cog," Emily asked getting a nod to clarify her suspicion. It was suddenly obvious to the red head that the conversation was beginning to bother Amy, so she looked out the window and changed the subject.

"Amy, are you hungry?" Amy followed the gear's gaze out the window down to the market. Like a hungry toddler Amy nodded, "Yeah, I haven't eaten in awhile, what about you Emily?" The Private shook her hair and picked up her lancer clicking the clip into the chamber of the gun.

"Alright, stay up here, I'll be right back with some chow." Amy grinned widely and watched the Private leave the apartment room, shutting the door behind her. Amy then moved from the couch to the armchair so she could look out the window. After watching for nearly a minute she spotted Emily making her way casually out of the building onto the street.

Her head was tilted upwards; she was obviously watching the rooftops. When she was satisfied that they were clear, she began moving down the street towards the market, her vision locked on the corpses. Eventually the red haired gear disappeared into the market leaving Amy with nothing but the street and the dead karn to observe. _She was so preoccupied with staring out the window… she didn't even hear the door open behind her. _


	12. Chapter 11

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 11: Return of 'Mayhem" **

_**Author's note: Hey guys, sorry for the slow updates, I'm an active person and am in school therefore updates are slow! Enjoy the chapter! If you've been reading the story since the beginning you may catch what the title of this chapter means. Enjoy! **_

"Wow, the art is in these apartments suck, I mean look at this portrait, is that supposed to be a dog?" The obnoxious but human voice caused Amy to scream and turn around hopping onto the window sill wide eyed.

Standing before her was a helmet less gear whose lean arms ran with rivers of ink. His long green hair was hanging down from beneath a black bandanna and his mouth was shaped like a banana.

"Did I scare you?" He sounded excited as he moved towards Amy who began to relax at the sight of a cog soldier.

"Yes, you absolutely terrified me," she snapped back a little irritated at how the gear didn't even let her acknowledge and instead just walked in. By the look on the young gears face she could tell that was his intention.

"Sweet! Aw man, I never thought it would work!" He took his time laughing like a maniac while Amy watched unhappily. It was as if the soldier was taking the situation as a joke even thought the city was filled with adversaries.

"Who are you?" Amy managed to finally ask when the gear quit laughing, his face set firm now.

"Corporal Mike Simmons of Echo Squad ma'am, at you're service," he saluted by pointing his lancer at his head. Amy's frown only grew as his smile grew wider, "Okay I'm sorry, are you hiding up here from the karn?" Amy suddenly remembered Emily and whipped back around to face the window. She instantly let out a little cry clasping her hands to her mouth as Mike moved next to her, "What is it?"

Following her gaze he instantly spotted the ten bulky gray bodies moving down the street. Each one holding a gnasher shotgun with boltok pistols strapped to their belts. Mike narrowed his eyes at them and turned to Amy, "Shhhh, I'm going to flank them in the rear."

"Wait, there's another-," Amy was far too late as the soldier rushed out of the room knocking a plant off the table. Amy immediately moved to the door and peered down the hallway hoping to catch the enthusiastic soldier but he was gone and instead she heard gunshots.

Practically stumbling with speed she ran back to the window to find the market under fire by the karn. Any glass that was un-shattered from previous battles was being blown to bits sending sparks flying into the dark of the night. Amy instantly knew who they were shooting at, and despite her great vantage point, she was without a weapon…

Suddenly out of nowhere she saw the blue lights of Mike's Cog armor appear as he crouched behind a car near the wave of karn. Amy gasped just as Emily threw a smoke grenade blocking the view of the market and making the already difficult task of seeing at night even more difficult.

A stunned Amy then watched the karn as they blundered around aiming their shotguns and pistols ineffectively. Finally one moved right next to the crouching Mike who stood smacking the creature in the head with the butt of his gun. Like a tree the creature timbered to the pavement causing the others to whip around giving Pvt. Hefresson the perfect opportunity from behind an alley.

Lancer fire erupted into the night as she launched a barrage of bullets at the karn's backsides. Three of the ten dropped in splashes of gore while the rest scattered for cover, giving Mike a chance to shoot another one dead.

So far so good, Amy was beginning to breathe normally again until she saw the gray body of a karn run past Mike towards the entrance of the building she was standing in!

Backing away from the window her first thought was to run out of the room but she quickly changed it when she heard the creature's heavy footsteps coming up the stairs down the hall. Instead she desperately spun around in the room searching for a hiding spot.

Realizing the apartment was rather small and scare of furniture, she rushed to the door. She shut the door quietly and flipped the lights off before jogging back to the center of the room. Without a second thought she crawled under the coffee table and tucked into a ball, her eyes fixed on the door and the sliver of light outside beneath it.

_Thud, thud, thud… _The heavy boots repeated the noise as the karn causally moved down the hallway grunting. Amy could hear every breath of the thing as it stopped in front of the doorway, its massive feet blocking the hallway's light under the door.

Beginning to breathe loudly in fear, Amy cupped her mouth begging the thing not to open the door. To her dismay the door flung open and the karn stepped in, its beady yellow eye looking like a spotlight in the dark room. Amy squeezed her eyes shut wishing it would just turn and leave but instead the creature began sniffing.

His large nostrils flared up as it inhaled deeply then pumped a shell into the chamber of his shotgun. Amy could feel her eyes begin to water as the karn moved to one corner of the room, looking out the window at the street below. There was no gunfire, did that mean Mike and Emily were killed?

Seeming satisfied the karn then proceeded back towards out into the hallway disappearing from sight around the corner. That's when Amy released her stiff leg from the ball and accidentally kicked a leg of the table causing a loud _thud_ outside the door. Immediately the karn returned its one eye locked on the coffee table aiming the shotgun.

"SHOW YOURSELF WORTHLESS HUMAN," it bellowed angrily. Knowing if she didn't move it would kill her anyways, she crawled out from under the table to stand before the burly karn. It stared at her and smiled slightly before batting her with a massive open hand sending her sprawling to the ground whining. "You human females are pretty," it growled taking a step closer to her.

Its pupil was fixated on her and his tongue began to slide out of its mouth as it raised the shotgun slowly, as if thinking. The scene was getting more and more dramatic; Amy just wanted it over with. "Shoot me then!"

The karn bellowed with laughter and Amy felt a tear run down her cheek. "Good bye human female… may your god have mercy upon you," he muttered before taking aim. Suddenly the lights flared on blinding Amy as a familiar sound rang in ears.

The revving of a chainsaw was heard just as two lancers appeared slicing into the creature's shoulders as it screamed in agony. Amy opened her eyes just in time to see the creature's gory armless corpse collapse to the ground.

Covered in red sticky blood behind the once breathing karn was Emily and Mike, both of them were smiling. Amy grinned widely and stood up hugging Emily despite the lake of blood at her feet, "Thank you."

Emily smiled as they broke apart, blood now spattered on Amy's clothing. Looking down it she was revolted at first but then could only smile at the red head as she giggled. Mike was staring at the blood stain on the wall next to her, "Now that's art," he exclaimed happily. _Both girls laughed at the quote and he smirked in return, little did the trio know how severe the situation was at the bridge… _

_**Author's note: I understand Mike Simmons was supposed to be dead, next episode he explains how he survived! Plus, more karn killing! **_


	13. Chapter 12

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 12: The Plan of Assault **

_**Author's Note: Hey guys were in back in business and this story is my main focus! Expect weekly updates! Seriously! I'm not kidding this time! :P Enjoy this epic chapter! **_

Matt and Fixer ran straight through the door and dived to the gas station's floor just as a wave of bullets from the bridge nailed the building. Both then crawled across the floor grunting with the effort it took to move in their armor. Eventually, Matt reached his fellow Lieutenant and sat up underneath the window next to him.

Lt. Eckhart adjusted his glasses on his sweaty, smudged face and let out a sad smile underneath his bushy brown mustache. Matt returned the smile and held up his lancer for his friend to get a better look in the dark. Eckhart instantly caught sight of Dalia's tags dangling from the stock of the gun.

"I'm glad you went out there and got them Dunbar," he said softly without taking his eyes off them. Matt looked from Eckhart back to the tags.

"Yeah, knowing her she would have done the same for either of us," he replied quietly. Images rapidly flew through his head of his old squad. Eckhart leading them, Dalia being so young and naïve, and now, in mere seconds, she was gone from the world forever. Never to be seen, or spoken to again by either of the Lieutenants.

Eckhart sighed heavily just as Corey began to set himself up in a prone position in the entrance to the gas station. His longshot and helmeted head was sticking out of the doorway just far enough to have a view of the bridge and its hundred yellow, beady eyed occupants in the dark. "I just wish it was me instead of her. That's two of my squad I've lost in a single day. Two too many…" Eckhart dropped his gaze to the floor miserably making Matt react by placing a strong hand on one of the older man's shoulder pads.

"Don't lose faith. Remember what were fighting for Eck. Death is inevitable in war, its going to happen. But no matter what, we have to get up and continue fighting." Lt. Eckhart took off his glasses and blinked the sweat out of his eyes to get a better look at Matt in the dark before grinning.

"God damn it Dunbar… you're right! So what's this so called plan Corporal Rollard mentioned?" Matt smiled and scratched his goatee just as the Karn opened fire on the station again, lighting it with sparks from where the bullets impacted.

The two remaining members of Echo Squad flashed smiles at their Lieutenant. "Fixer, get over here for a second and help explain!" Matt ordered. Instantly the Private turned to them and staying crouched, moved over to them hastily setting his retro lancer and comm. pack on the floor next to them.

He removed his helmet revealing his youthful eyes and dirty blonde hair and smiled at the two Lieutenants. Matt returned it despite the rapid amount of bullets attacking their shelter.

"Okay Eckhart, I've talked this out with Maria already. In order to clear this bridge were going to use the hammer of dawn, problem is we need a clear view and shot on the bridge. So we sent Sgt. Rhodes to clear the building over looking the bridge, he's up there clearing it as I speak. You get where I'm going with this Eck?"

The gear stroked his mustache briefly and nodded his balding head quickly. "Yes Lt. Dunbar, I know exactly what you mean. You intend to get the hammer up on the roof and blast the living hell out of the bridge correct?"

Matt nodded solemnly, "Exactly, Fixer is our hammer of dawn expert; he'll be the one firing it." Eckhart turned his head to the young gear and stared at him hard through his glasses.

"It's darker than a cave now that's nights fallen, you sure you can do this son?" Fixer laughed instantly and smirked bigger than ever.

"Yes sir, you can count on me. If theirs one thing I'm good at, it's hitting targets with this baby," he answered and patted the comm. pack containing the hammer. Eckhart smiled, "Good, how do you plan on getting him safely up there Dunbar? Escort?"

Matt nodded and raised his bald head to peek out the window. He ducked back down seconds later just as another wave of bullets began pelting the building. The other gears inside the building were hardly returning fire, conserving ammo and being unable to see were the reasons behind it.

"I was thinking Corey and I could escort him to the top of the building. That way Corey will have clear sniping from that roof top." Eckhart nodded slowly as if processing the selections for the escort.

"Hey! Lieutenant I'm perfectly capable of sniping too! Why don't you let me up there?" It was Cor. Downey speaking from behind the gas station's check out counter. His green eyes were alight with adrenaline as he set his longshot on the table next to his lancer. "I could leave my lancer ammo here then."

Matt thought about it and looked at Eckhart who nodded. "Alright, Corporals Downey and Rollard will escort Pvt. Fixer up to the building with you then Lt. Dunbar. Meanwhile, Echo Squad will give them hell from here sound good?" Matt nodded and patted Eckhart hard on the shoulder.

"Sounds great, alright Fixer, Downey, Rollard, let's get ready to move out!"

On command the driver hurdled the counter holding his long shot and moved into position next to Corey who was still lying prone. Fixer was on the driver's opposite of the doorway now wearing his helmet with Matt lining up behind the driver.

The other gears watched with interest. Both Echo Squad members gave each other concerned looks. The plan sounded great to them just… "How do you guys exactly plan to sprint across to that building?" It was the Cor. Mielke who had asked, his sweaty dreads covered his face as he sat across the wall still huffing over his near fatal experience.

"Well it is night now, so I doubt these guys can see us that well… but then again our armor's lights give us away," Corey answered without even turning to look at the Echo Squad gear.

"Dunbar!" Matt whipped around fast just in time to catch the smoke grenade Lt. Eckhart had tossed him. "Use that thing well, wouldn't want to lose another comrade today." Matt smirked at his friend and handed the grenade to the driver.

"Don't mess up on the throw," he told Cor. Downey who laughed enthusiastically.

"If I mess this up I'll let cha put a bullet in my leg, how's that sound?" Fixer laughed and Matt could tell a smile crossed Corey's lips underneath his helmet. "Alright, here goes nothing!" With a big wind up Cor. Downey threw the grenade out into the dark as close to the bridge as he could possibly make it. To everyone's astonishment, it was near perfect as a thick cloud of smoke erupted directly in front of the first line of sandbags.

"Now's our chance, move out!" Matt's yell was quickly over powered by the sound of heavy enemy fire as bullets began to dance all along the building and its surroundings just as the four gears sprinted out. Matt could already hear Eckheart shouting out orders to his squad mates in the station.

"CONSERVE AMMO AND LET'S RETURN FIRE WHEN WE CAN! HAVE AT EM BOYS!" Just as the four got halfway to the building the smoke began to fade and the karn turned their fire towards them. But just as the karn changed fire, lancer fire broke out from the gas station's windows gunning down a few karn on the front lines.

"Keep running! Do not stop!"

Matt felt more confident than ever as they neared the building's entrance up a set of concrete stairs coated with blood from a few civilian corpses near by. "Were going in there rig-," Fixer stopped mid-sentence when a bullet grazed his helmet sending sparks flying at Corey's heels. "Ow, the fucker almost got me in the head!"

"Stay focused and keep running," Corey spoke before Matt could even move his jaw. That was like the resourceful sniper though, also giving the right advice to rookies when needed. If anything was to happen to Matt… he would recommend Corporal Corey Rollard to be his immediate back up. Despite the fact that Leonardo had the higher rank…

Finally the gears reached the stairs and stormed into the building, Cor. Downey receiving a shot to his back as he stumbled in last cursing. "You alright Jon," Matt asked immediately as the driver leaned against the wall looking back out into the night that was alight with gunfire.

"Yeah, I'm good, didn't make it through the armor quite," he muttered before stepping away from the wall to stare down the red carpeted hallway of the building.

"Looks like were in some sort of office building," Pvt. Fixer commented as they started moving down the hall passing rooms filled with desks and paperwork. Both Corey and Jon had their pistols out because they left their lancers back at the gas station for ammo. Suddenly Fixer noticed Jon's gorgon pistol, "Whoa! Where did you find one of those?" He exclaimed excitedly.

Jon's green eyes shot to it briefly and a grin appeared on his face. "I kept it as a souvenir from the last war." Fixer bobbed his helmeted head eagerly with interest. Matt couldn't imagine what the tech heads were thinking about…

Suddenly several gunshots broke out on the level above the gears. All four stopped and aimed their guns up for a second, then began to jog down the hallway. "Stay sharp guys, we don't want anyone to get the jump on us," Matt informed his squad mates.

"Hey, we got an elevator up ahead Matt," It was Corey who spotted the shiny silver doors hidden in a small alcove to the left of the hall. "Looks a bit worn out, but I bet it still works," Corey said as they approached it.

"Let's find out," Matt stepped forward and pushed the up button hesitantly as if expecting a bomb to go off somewhere. To his dismay, nothing happened. He turned to Corey smiling and he could tell that Corey was smiling back underneath his helmet.

"You want me to try and fix it?" Matt shook his head and clasped his lancer to the back of his armor in exchange for the gnasher that had experienced little action thus far.

"No, let me take lead though seeing that you and Jon both have those pistols." Corey bobbed his head in response and followed Fixer who already stepped back out into the hallway as another series of gunshots echoed from above.

"Let's hurry, we don't know how Leonardo is holding up," Matt said uncertainly as the gunfire stopped once again. Jon laughed at that making Matt shoot him a questioning look.

"He left a nice dent in the armadillo earlier and he's a little pissed at losing his friend, I bet he's giving them hell up there."

"And what if he's not and it's the other way around?" Fixer asked quietly making the driver glance at him and smirk. "Just saying," Fixer murmured in response just as Matt rounded a corner revealing a dusty stair well.

"Up we go," was all Matt said as he began trotting up the steps. The four gears boots echoed and they _thudded _their way up the stairs highly alert. Suddenly Matt heard from his ear piece.

"How's the plan working so far Lieutenant? Because I don't know how much longer we can hold out in this shit," Lt. Eckhart was talking loudly over the constant drone of gunfire from his position.

"Were still trying to locate Sgt. Rhodes but were en route to the roof, I think I'm going to search the building after we get to the top," Matt replied with a hand to his ear.

"Good. Because we've suffered one causality in you're absence and they're beginning to send, oh, hold on-," there was long pause of static that was interrupted with an extreme sound of shooting. "Sorry about that Lieutenant, we had one bastard almost coming through the door. The blitzers are getting really close, so we need that hammer going ASAP Dunbar!" Matt flashed a look of concern at Corey who read his expression with ease and began to pick up the pace motioning the others to do the same.

"Alright Eck, were working on it, sit tight and hold that station!" The four gears were now full out sprinting up the stairs passing all the possible exits to other locations in the building. They were going to the top, and nothing was stopping them.

"How are they doing," Pvt. Fixer asked from the rear.

Matt turned back to him briefly, "They're fine, trust me, let's just worry about getting that hammer going." The Private nodded his helmeted head and continued sprinting up the stairs with his comrades. _Burrowed deep down in mind though… his concerns were else where…_

**XVX**

Emily stared in disbelief at the Echo Squad gear as he took an apple from the apartment's refrigerator and bit into it loudly. Amy was doing the same as Emily from across the room. "So you just fell down…? And they stopped shooting?"

Mike turned to her smirking as juice from the apple dripped down his chin wetting his strip of black chin hair, "Pretty much. I ran at them shooting and then one shot at least twice I think, the first one almost took my head off but after the second shot I just fell and decided maybe if I just lay here, they'll think I'm dead."

Emily frowned, "Then why didn't you get up and make a run for the armadillo when Jon and I rescued you're squad?" The Corporal's face lit up with joy as he took another thoughtful bite of the apple.

"Figured I'd hang back, see how many of the bastards I could kill making my way back," he said happily making Emily smile and shake her head. Amy simply looked horrified from her place in the room. Her eyes continuously flashed from Mike to the mutilated corpse of the Karn on the floor by Emily's blood soaked boots.

Mike seemed disappointed when neither of the women showed any interest and leaned against the fridge eating the apple casually. His lancer was laying on the kitchen counter not a step away. "Soooo," he began not exactly sure what he was going to say, eventually he decided, "What now? And where's your squad uh, sorry I don't have a name for ya yet?"

Emily let her lancer hang towards the floor with one hand, "You can call me Emily, my last name is Hefresson but Emily's fine. As for where my squad is… their currently fighting our way out of the city." Mike's eyes widened as he whipped the apple out the window past Emily's red haired head startling her.

"WHAT! Then what are we doing here let's go help them," the Corporal exclaimed as he grabbed his lancer and strode to the door where he stopped and spun around. "Well, you two coming or not?"

Amy ran a shaky hand through her brown hair and stared down at her feet. "Corey wanted me safe… that's why I'm here with Emily, hiding until the fights over so we can leave the city." Mike looked at the woman in surprise and then looked to the Rico Squad Private.

"Is that true?" Emily nodded calmly keeping eye level with the Corporal who made a face of distress. "Okay, you two stay here… I'm getting to that bridge; I'll send word to your Lieutenant that you're still doing well. Sound good Emily?" The Private stared at the floor with anger swelling up inside her.

She wanted to go and help her Squad. Even more importantly she wanted to make sure _he _was okay. But she had her orders. And technically they weren't even orders; she had volunteered to stay behind with Amy…

Finally she let out a sigh, "Yeah, that's fine, can I get you're name? You know, just in case something happens."

Mike stared at her puzzled and raised one of his ink covered arms to run a hand through his long messy green hair. "It's Mike, Mike Mayhem Simmons…," he started quietly, "AND DON'T CHA FORGET IT," he finished raising his voice loudly and flashing a shiny grin. Emily smiled in return and so did Amy.

"Well then, good luck Mike, don't die a second time," Emily said much quieter. _Mike smirked at her, and then, as soon as he came, disappeared out the door down the hallway and eventually into the night… _

**XVX**

"He's trying to flank us," Corey yelled over the chaos of gunfire. The four gears had emerged from the stair well only to be greeted by a Karn patrol of five blitzers. Thankfully the top floor was one major office, so it was easy to flip desks for cover saving the gears from dying right away.

Matt turned his bald head and watched with his blue eyes as the gray skinned creature clumsily tried to move stealthily against the wall to flank him. Just as the Karn stopped and took aim with its gnasher, Matt fired with his shotgun dropping the Karn with a spew of blood. "Make sure he's finished," Corey called from behind Matt. The Lieutenant turned to the Corporal and nodded, slowly beginning to move between cover towards his possibly alive enemy.

"Shit I hate not having a lancer," Jon yelled in frustration as he inaccurately fired a burst from his gorgon pistol missing the charging Karn by about a foot. The Cyclops like creature then took a chance and shot hip fire blowing away part of Jon's cover behind a wooden table. "Fuck! You want some!" The driver stood up this time blasting two full bursts of bullets into the creature's chest dropping it in a pool of blood.

Meanwhile Fixer was keeping two Karn stuck behind a metal cabinet with repetitive retro lancer fire. "Hey Corey, think you can flush them out for me?"

"On it," Corey said as he ran past the Private and slid underneath a desk parallel to the cabinet, giving him a view of his foes legs. He then aimed with his snub pistol and stared popping rounds in the nearest Karn's calves.

It screamed in agony and instantly ran out of cover trying to avoid the bullets. Instead of avoiding them however, he received a back full of them from Fixer across the room. The second Karn earned a similar fate when he ran out of cover and attempted to shoot with his gnasher even though he was far out of range. Fixer killed him in seconds with a vertical spray of bullets up through its head.

"Matt? Is he dead?" Corey was cautiously approaching the Lieutenant from the far side of the room. His arms were still both outstretched aiming his pistol. With no response, Fixer and Jon both stood and began cautiously moving towards the far side of the room just like Corey.

"Lieutenant," Fixer called out uncertainly. Suddenly the three gears were stunned by a sickening crack and then watched as Matt stood from behind a desk.

"I think he broke his neck," Matt said with fake pity. Jon leaned back and began laughing while Corey simply shook his head.

"At least he died quick," Fixer joked as Matt reloaded his gnasher and pumped it aggressively.

"Still no sign of Leonardo, so either he missed this patrol and is down on a lower level or-," Corey finished the sentence, "he's already back at the station with Lt. Eckhart and the others." Matt looked at him and nodded sternly, "Right."

The Rico Squad Lieutenant then moved his hand to his ear piece. "Eck, come in, it's Matt." There was a long pause before a burst of static came through along with Eckhart.

"Yep were still holding up here Lt. Dunbar. Did you make it to the roof yet?"

"No, I see the final stairs though," he pointed and motioned for the others to go. They obeyed with Corey taking the lead. The Corporal already had his longshot out and loaded. "By chance is Sgt. Rhodes with you guys at the station?"

"No Lieutenant, that's a big negative. We haven't seen any friendly units since you boys left." Matt furrowed his brow and set his shotgun on one of the many chairs in the room.

"Alright, just wondering because we've reached the top of the building and we've yet to see him." There was at least a thirty second pause of static before Eckhart responded, there was screaming in the background.

"Shit Dunbar! We just took another casuality! Hurry the hell up or were gonna be KIA!" Matt's eyes widened in alert and he grabbed his shotgun.

"Alright Eck, I'm going up on the roof, I promise to have that hammer up in two minutes! Just hang on!" Matt began jogging towards the stairs and stopped when he heard footsteps coming from the stairwell. He turned and squinted before dropping his shotgun, and drawing his lancer taking aim. Just as he moved his finger into the trigger guard the massive Sergeant appeared walking casually with a big grin on his hairy and blood spattered face.

He burst into a hefty laugh, "Going to shoot me Lieutenant?" Matt broke into a smile and lowered the lancer immediately. The big man began to walk across the room towards him, occasionally reaching up to wipe his face of blood most likely from his enemies.

"I hadn't planned on it Leonardo," he replied making the man laugh again even louder, if possible.

"Good, where's the Private and his little toy of destruction?" Matt nodded his head to the stairs behind him. Leonardo glanced at them and nodded his head before following Matt as he jogged up.

Once at the top they found their fellow gears. Both Jon and Corey were set up far apart already scoping out the bridge with their snipers. Fixer was kneeling in between the two opening his comm. pack. Leonardo and Matt approached just as the hammer of dawn slid out of the metallic pack into his hands. He then looked up at Matt, "Are we ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," the Lieutenant replied as he moved towards the overhang of the building and squinted into the night down at the bridge. If it weren't for the Karn's extremely bright yellow eyes, he was pretty confident they would be impossible to see. The other thing that gave them away was the fact that most were firing away at the gas station, lighting up the street with sparks. Suddenly Leonardo's impatience got the better of him.

"Enough waiting Fixer! Let's avenge our fallen and blow the bastards to hell!" Fixer was surprised at Leonardo's yell, but when he looked at Matt, he gave him the thumbs up. Fixer nodded in return and stood up moving to the overhang gripping the hammer tightly.

"Alright, here comes one bridge full of dead Karn," he said with a smile on his face underneath his helmet. Matt took a few steps back next to Leonardo who stood watching anxiously. Suddenly a sniper shot broke the silence followed by a second; both Jon and Corey had taken their first shots.

_The plan of assault had begun… _

**_Riddick Writer: _How was that for a return to the action! Like it? PLEASE DO REVIEW! XD **


	14. Chapter 13

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 13: Close Call**

_**Riddick Writer: Hey guys were finally reaching a close on the story's Quinta act! Only a few more chapters before were moving on but what's going to happen? Will we lose any other gears lose their lives in this dreadful city? Or will the rest escape with their lives! READ AND FIND OUT! Enjoy the chapter! **_

Matt watched for a third time as a massive yellow beam came from the sky decimating even more of the bridge with a Sera shaking _boom. _From below the Karn could be heard crying out in agony as they were literally annihilated by the Hammer's powerful beam. Corey and Jon weren't even sniping anymore, there was simply no point, plus the dark of night made it difficult to even lock on to a single Karn…

Suddenly the beam disappeared again and the gears watched as another massive section of the bridge crumbled into the river below. The quantity of yellow beady eyes that once covered the bride were now down to nearly half as they scrambled around trying to take up positions behind sandbags that still stood on stable sections of the bridge.

"Resilient bastards aren't they?" Cor. Downey said with a chuckle as Fixer prepared to let loose another powerful shot from the hammer of dawn.

"Just like the locust… but they can only hold so long before their will breaks and they retreat," Leonardo said wisely as he switched his sawed off shotgun for his retro lancer checking to make sure it was loaded. "They can only last so much longer."

Matt was looking at Leonardo and nodded in agreement at the last part. It was only a matter of time, and thankfully, there didn't seem to be any more causalities. That reminded him of Echo Squad and he stepped away from the overhang of the building and moved to the far side, away from his fellow gears. Staring out into the night sky he placed a hand to his ear, "Eck, come in, it's Lt. Dunbar."

It took a few brief seconds before the Echo Squad leader responded. "I hear you Lt. Dunbar, and damn did you do well! These bastards don't know what hit em, provided, some are still escaping the bridge to us, but Corporal Stiletto and I are mowing him down easy enough. How is your side of things, any trouble inside the building?"

"We didn't have too much trouble inside. How's your causality doing?"

There was long pause of static, no doubt Eckhart was checking. Matt looked back at his squad who were all watching Fixer fire another beam from the hammer. The beam literally lit up the night; you could see a good amount of the ruined city because of it.

"He's holding up alright for now, but if Corporal Mielke here doesn't get medical aid soon Dunbar, I don't know if he's gonna make it." Matt moved to the side of the building with a view on the gas station and stared. He squinted but still couldn't make out any of Echo Squad inside because of the darkness that ensued the station.

"Pvt. Hefresson is medically trained; I'll send Cor. Downey to retrieve her now." He paused, turning to watch as the Hammer's beam came down once again, "I don't think we'll miss him and if it's to save his life it's worth it."

"Affirmative Lieutenant, the sooner you get that Private here to fix Cor. Mielke up, the better," he said honestly. With that Matt nodded and jogged over to Downey putting grabbing him by the shoulder pad.

The driver whipped around quickly nearly hitting Matt in the leg with the barrel of his longshot. He laughed, "Sorry about that, what's up?" Matt made a grim face.

"Cor. Mielke's been injured down at the station, Emily is our only squad member between both squads with medical training," Matt began to explain desperately hoping that Jon would catch on. Fortunately, the driver got it right away.

"En route to get her and Amy then," Jon said throwing his longshot down. The driver was already striding to the staircase to leave the roof.

Matt watched him and just as he disappeared, Matt put a hand to his ear, "Cor. Downey is on his way to get her, tell Mielke to hang in there Eck." There was a buzz of static as Fixer stopped the current Hammer blast to inspect his damage. Then Lt. Eckhart's voice was heard once more.

"Roger that Lt. Dunbar, Echo Squad out." Matt scratched his growing goatee in exhaustion and practically fell to his bottom as he sat on the roof. It didn't take long for Cor. Rollard to follow suit and sit next to him resting his longshot on his lap. He removed his helmet calmly setting it directly in front of him, the visor facing him.

He smiled playfully, "What's the matter Lieutenant? Sick of war already again?"

Matt half smiled, "Damn right I am. I'm getting close to fifty," he chuckled making Corey grin.

"Yeah, you and me both, at least I feel like it," he said sounding distant as he stared at the horizon. He blinked his green eyes drowsily and stared at his leader for a long time. "These wars have prevented Sera from growing… like take us for example," he gestured. "Neither of us are married, hell, nobody in our entire squad is married. But the point is us old guys, you, me, Eck, Leonardo, none of us are married, none of us have a family of our own." Matt nodded grasping the concept that his long time friend was making.

"So what you're saying is because were not having children of our own, humanity is slowly dying?" Corey nodded solemnly. His face was expressionless and cold, his usually bright green eyes seemed dim.

"Exactly. It sounds stupid I know, but if you think about how many men and women die in the Cog during every one of these wars, it makes sense why were slowly dying along with Sera." Matt sighed, despite how much he hated what the Corporal was saying, it was true. And even though this war had just started, things were already going downhill.

On a simple city evacuation mission that was designed as search and rescue for civilians, several squads had already perished. Not to mention that between the two remaining squads, they've only actually rescued one individual… In other words this mission into Quinta was a complete failure.

"Your right Corey, but the only way we can change that is by ending this war, right?" Matt responded calmly without taking his eyes of Fixer as he readied another shot further down the bridge. Eventually he turned his gaze on Corey who was giving a puzzled look.

_Corey suddenly nodded and closed his eyes, "Yeah, you're right Matt." _

**XVX**

Another beam blasted away more of the bridge along with about two dozen screeching Karn. From the far end of the bridge it was hard for the Karn to watch their comrades die in vain, but it was for a good cause. The gears were lucky it was night… because otherwise the dozen Karn snipers watching the bridge's destruction would be having a field day.

Suddenly their leader, General Grudge emerged from the rear. He marched straight up to the last line of sandbags and squinted at the beam with his large, single, eye. He snorted impatiently and snatched another Karn's bolt action rifle loading it in mere seconds. All the other Karn snipers watched him in interest as he gripped the tiny rifle in his massive hands and took aim.

He could hazily see the gas station and first few buildings in the city with ease, but that was only when the hammer's beam was lighting it up for him. Suddenly the beam went out, ruining his vision with darkness. In annoyance, he lowered the gun and waited patiently until anther beam shook the bridge with more destruction.

For a second time he took aim, this time aiming upwards towards the roof tops. Sure enough, he found his targets. One big human stood next to a smaller one wearing a helmet who was firing the hammer of dawn. Without even knowing it his tongue slimed out of his mouth past his thick chin as he began to line up the crosshairs on the gear's visor. He let the roaring beam pass through his scope before moving his finger to the trigger guard. _Then, with no hesitation, he sent a bullet flying and bit down on his tongue hard, drawing blood just as he saw his target to down… _

**XVX**

Corey's green eyes flicked open just in time to hear the booming shot echo from across the bridge. Instinctively both he and Matt dove to their stomachs immediately, to their surprise they heard a sickening _thwack_, and looked up in surprise at Fixer who was frozen in place.

Time seemed to be going in slow motion as Fixer's helmet, which was soaring through the air, passed Corey. Matt watched it before turning his attention back to Fixer, his blue eyes widening, "FIXER! Noooo!"

The hammer of dawn slipped from the Private's hands hitting the roof top with a dreadful _clang _just as Fixer crumpled over to his side wheezing. It took mere seconds for the other gears to reach the Private who was clutching his face, now screaming in agony.

"Oh my fucking god! I can't feel my face, I can't feel it!" His screams were repetitive and agonizing to hear as Matt fretted over the profusely bleeding gear trying to get a look at the wound.

Suddenly Leonardo stood from his kneeing position shooting off rounds with his retro towards the bridge like no tomorrow. "YOU SPINELESS SNIPING BASTARDS! FIGHT US LIKE MEN!" Matt turned to the Sergeant his eyes wide with alertness.

"Leonardo get down," he yelled but instead of listening, the bear of a man continued yelling insults and shooting. Thankfully, Corey tackled him to the ground with great effort, grunting at the impact of hitting the big Sergeant and taking him down. If Fixer got shot, they were all within range…

Matt returned his attention back to Fixer and finally managed to pin him down getting a good look at his face. Other than a massive flesh wound scraping along the side of the Private's head, he appeared okay. But if the bullet had gone slightly to the left, Pvt. Fixer would no longer be breathing and that was certain.

"Okay Fixer," Matt said confidently, "just stay down, do not try and move… help is on the way." Fixer's eyes buzzed wildly as he looked all over the place and began desperately trying to reach at his face again, but Matt overpowered him with ease. The last thing he wanted the Private to do was go into shock. "You're fine, just relax!"

Meanwhile Corey and Leonardo were sitting against the overhang watching with concern. Leonardo was still huffing from his previous rage while Corey was calmly observing his Lieutenant attend to the Private who was moaning.

"Okay… okay… I'm fine," Fixer was moaning as he rocked back and forth as much as Matt would allow. Matt nodded still soothing him. 

"Yes, you're fine, just try not to move," he repeated without moving his eyes from the Private's.

"How close do you think Cor. Downey is to getting back with Pvt. Hefresson, Dunbar?" The deep voice belonged to Leonardo who was no longer huffing but simply observing. Matt turned to him with his mouth slightly ajar while Corey moved past him to retrieve his long shot and helmet.

"I don't know, I can try and reach them- but right now Fixer needs out attention," he said quickly brushing away the idea of trying to contact them. It was pointless; it didn't help the driver or Emily get any closer. If anything it would probably actually slow them down!

Corey took a knee next to Matt staring down at Fixer frowning. "Theirs not much more we can do other than wait," he said pitifully. Matt nodded in anguish and straightened himself to see over the edge of the building down towards the far side of the bridge. "Whoever fired is one hell of a shot," Corey commented reading Matt's mind.

He turned back to Corey nodding wide eyed. "I was stunned that any snipers could see at all during night. Let alone hit a target hundreds of yards away…"

Corey kept the frown firmly planted on his face as he gazed down at Fixer. Surprisingly the young gear had stopped moaning and was now laying still patiently watching Matt finally release his grip. "How are you feeling now," Matt asked calmly.

"Better, to be honest, for a few seconds I felt like I was gonna die though," he admitted dryly as he ran a hand through his blonde hair. The right side of the Private's head was slicked with dark crimson blood that seemed stickier than anything. Matt frowned at it as he hesitantly gave the Private some room to maneuver and get comfortable.

"Good, you've already been shot once today, by now you should be getting used to it," Corey joked bringing a small smile to the wounded gear's face. Matt couldn't help but chuckle as his eyes darted to the arm wound, which to no surprise, was bleeding again. Emily had forgotten to bandage it properly…

Fixer sighed, "Lt. Dunbar?" The older gear raised his eyes brows, "Do you think… uh, Emily and Amy are doing alright?"

Matt couldn't help but smile, "I'm sure their fine and en route to our location. Let's just make sure we finish off the bridge." Suddenly Matt moved his hand to his ear. "Eck, what's the status on your causality?"

He heard the Echo Squad Lieutenant's voice immediately, "My men aren't no pussies Dunbar! He's holding up just fine at the moment, but we need Pvt. Hefresson ASAP!" Matt's face went firm with thought and he gave Corey a look indicating the hammer of dawn lying peacefully next to Fixer.

The Corporal got the message and instantly picked it up moving cautiously to the overhang. "Alright Eck, we just had a causality of our own, nothing too serious though, but one hell of a close call. Pvt. Fixer and I are en route to the gas station. I'm leaving Sgt. Rhodes and Cor. Rollard on clean up duty with the hammer." There was a buzz of static before Eckhart's voice came through again.

"Roger that Lt. Dunbar, see you soon, Eckhart out."

With that Matt removed his hand from his ear and gave Leonardo a hard look. The big man turned his scared, bearded face towards him, a look of fire in his eyes. "Can I trust you and Corey to finish things up here?" Leonardo let a smile cross his lips deviously.

"Of course, Lieutenant. We won't fail you; you get the youngster down to safety," he replied confidently winking at Corey who had his helmet back on once again. Matt looked at Corey briefly receiving a nod as he started to take aim with the hammer like Fixer had done before him.

_"Alright Rico Squad… let's finish this shit," he said with an edge of determination as he helped Fixer up and slowly began leading him towards the stairs. _

_**Riddick Writer: I KNOW THIS TOOK FOREVER TO UPDATE I'M SORRY! Anyways we have one last chapter to our Quinta Act before were moving on to our Ruins Act! Which may be less intense than this first Act, after all, gears are human! And humans need time to recover! And yes… I know General Grudge isn't a very unique name… but are you telling me Raam and Skorge are unique? Lol XD **_

_**REVIEWS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED! CYA NEXT TIME! OH AND HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY AMERICANS! **_


	15. Chapter 14

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 14: The Quinta Finale**

_**Riddick Writer: This is it! The conclusion to our Quinta Act of the story folks! A lot of stuff is about to go down! Are you ready for this? Well don't sit here reading this dumb A/N! Read the chapter already and enjoy! XD**_

Jon blinked fiercely and squinted on the road ahead. Sure enough rubble from a destroyed building blocked the path… just what he was hoping for. "God damn it!" he cursed to himself as he threw the armadillo into reverse and backed up moving a civilian car with ease. Soon the powerful vehicle was speeding back to the intersection with Jon's green eyes drowsily moving from the windshield to the clock on the dash.

4:00 A.M. That meant they had been in this god forsaken city for about 22 hours now. No wonder his eyes kept closing on him as he rounded a corner sloppily nearly crashing into what appeared to be a pawn shop.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered before taking another turn this one being executed perfectly. He could now clearly see the shot up grocery store from where Rico Squad had started their mission. It looked in worse shape than before, as if another firefight had occurred. Suddenly Jon's eyes widened and he sped up slamming on the breaks just as he crushed a few Karn corpses with the front tires of the vehicle.

In a matter of seconds the Corporal was out of the armadillo squinting up at the street lights that barely lit the street at all. In his right hand he gripped his gorgon pistol calmly, his face set with determination as he cautiously approached the store shooting looks up at the roof tops. Then he heard it… distinguished footsteps rapidly approaching from behind, he smirked.

"One more step and I'm gonna fucking waste-," he stopped mid sentence when he spun around aiming his gun only to find Amy. She was smeared with dirt and her clothes were in rags just like usual. Her blue eyes still filled with worry and fear. "Sorry," he scratched his head awkwardly, "Didn't mean to… you know?"

She nodded slowly not taking her eyes of the pistol that was now lowered to the ground. "Just in case you happened to be an enemy," Jon was shocked to hear Emily's voice behind him and he turned around slowly, "We were ready," she said with a small smile.

Sure enough the Private was lying underneath a civilian car aiming her lancer directly at Cor. Downey. Without an effort she could have killed him, boy that would have been a bad way to go.

Jon instantly smiled at the red haired Private as she crawled out from underneath the vehicle and broke into a laugh. "You're pretty damn smart for a Private!" That made her blush slightly as she moved towards the Corporal and Amy who were both fairly near the armadillo.

"Well I guess that's what happens when you get thrown into a mission like this," she said dismally indicating all the Karn. Jon surveyed the bodies grimly and nodded before turning to Amy. She seemed quite timid and quiet.

"You okay?" She immediately looked at up from the cement to him wide eyed.

"Oh yes, I'm fine," she paused looking uncertain, "Is Cor. Rollard okay?" The driver smiled happily.

"Yeah he's alright, but one of Echo Squad's not," he said briskly turning to Emily who took a step forward in concern. "By the sounds of it he's bleeding out down in the gas station, Emily you're the only one with medical training so we need to get there ASAP."

Emily suddenly started shaking. It was quite obvious because her lancer was bobbing up and down like a toy of some sort. Jon gave her a puzzled look as she stared down at her feet.

"Are you okay? Come on! You're the only one that has a chance at saving him!"

Suddenly Amy placed a firm grip on Jon's shoulder pad and he slowly turned his head to her. She simply shook her head solemnly and he looked back at Emily who had now turned her back on them. "She's too young and innocent to be in this war and you know it," Amy whispered.

Suddenly Jon broke away from her grasp and marched up to the Private stopping in front of her. "LISTEN! You have to do this! Were gears! Soldiers of the Cog! If you let him die, you'll never forgive yourself!" His yells echoed throughout the city followed by an eerie silence as Emily continued to not make eye contact.

Finally he gripped her small shoulders and shook her, "You can do this, just believe it damn it!" There was a long pause before Emily gave a slow, hesitant nod.

"You're… you're… right, okay, let's go," she said with new found confidence. Jon grinned ear to ear and began pushing her towards the armadillo. Amy was giving him a fierce glare, one full of hate and disapproval.

"Come on everyone we don't know the seriousness of the injury," Jon ordered indicating for Amy to hurry up and get in. _Slowly the survivor of Quinta followed Emily inside the top hatch with Jon right behind, in a matter of seconds the armadillo was speeding away back towards the bridge. _

**XVX**

Mike adjusted his black bandanna making sure his long green hair stayed behind it and not in his face. When he was satisfied, he picked up his lancer from atop the dumpster and continued to stroll down the alley with ease. Since leaving the girls at the apartment he had yet to see another Karn patrol, it was as if they were all at the bridge… which, was quite possible.

Even so, the Echo Squad Corporal kept himself on edge, aiming the gun wherever he heard a noise. He was alone, so one shot and he could be done… he had already escaped death once on this mission.

Suddenly he reached the end of the alley and stepped out onto the sidewalk frowning. He was in the suburbs of the city, concrete steps led to every small house on the street, each one reminding him of a ghetto of some sort. Sighing deeply he dropped his lancer and leaned against the brick wall in the alley reaching a tattooed hand into his pocket.

It soon produced a green pack of cigarettes labeled _Methanol Kools. _His other hand then revealed a lighter, and soon one of the white tobacco sticks was in his mouth being lit. Right away he took a long drag and then sighed slumping down the wall allowing a gust of smoke to go up into the air.

He stared at the thing in disgust yet again he moved it back to his mouth and sucked again. He felt the smoke burning up in his throat until he calmly released it once more to watch it float away. Just like so many gears that had died in the past wars. Suddenly he wondered how his Squad was holding up. How was Dalia doing? Eckhart?

He took another long drag and let the thought dwindle in his mind. Here he was bumming a cigereatte when really he should be going to help them… Suddenly angry with himself he stood snatching his lancer and breaking into a jog out of the alley and down the street. The cigereatte still sticking out of his mouth like a smoking tooth pick.

He breathed out more smoke just as he came to the end of the street that began sloping downwards in a sharp hill. At the bottom he could make a trio of Karn walking in the opposite direction of him… perfect.

In annoyance he flicked the half finished cigarette from his mouth and curb stomped it before chasing the Karn down the hilled street. Adrenaline slowly began to creep its way into his bloodstream as he slid against the bumper of a car making a _thud. _Right away one Karn spun around and grunted signaling his companions to stop.

Mike began to breathe heavily. If they caught sight of him all at once and he had to kill all three in one… there was just simply no way he'd pull it off. Instinctively, he set his lancer down and removed a sawed off shotgun from his back. Then he heard the loud distinctive _bang, _of a boltok pistol followed by the screech of a Karn.

Immediately he picked up that he wasn't being shot at and leaned out of cover to see what was going on. The Echo Squad Corporal's eyes widened when he watched another bullet spew blood from the shoulder of the middle Karn as he grunted from the impact of the shot while his companions charged forward blasting at an unseen shooter hiding inside a small building. The shooter quickly stopped shooting as the building was pelted with hammer burst fire.

The injured Karn was just beginning to jog to them but only got a single step before being obliterated in a splash of gore from Mike's shotgun. The other Karn whipped around in confusion and quickly began shooting at him, the bullets chasing him into cover behind another car as he fumbled to reload the shotgun. "Son of a bitch, son of a bitch," he was muttering to himself as the car shook with gunfire.

Suddenly another shot from the boltok pistol went through one Karn's leg crippling him and making his companion turn to shoot at the building again. This gave Matt the chance he needed, he slammed the shotgun loaded and rushed out from behind the car. The Karn bleeding from his leg spotted him and in alarm threw his exhausted hammer burst aside drawing a boltok and taking aim.

The Corporal rushed forward wildly and rolling forward taking a bullet straight to the chest. He coughed in pain and fell awkwardly in front of the two Karn blasting with his shotgun.

The blast literally soaked him in blood from the Karn as the one with the boltok was now in pieces and the other was missing limbs. Regardless, both were beyond dead leaving the green haired gear lying in their blood nursing his wound.

"God fucking damn it," he moaned as threw the shotgun aside and forced him into a seated position causing more blood to gush from his upper chest. "Shit!"

Suddenly a door creaked open and from the side of the now damaged building a young person appeared wearing a baggy sweater and jeans. The hood of the sweater was currently up preventing Mike from seeing the person's face.

"You were shooting pretty damn good with that thing for being a civvy," Mike called out to the stranger who slowly removed the hood revealing a bald head with shiny hazel eyes. Mike turned his attention back to his wound, "Ah, shit," he groaned lying back down as the boy approached.

Mike sensed almost nervousness from the boy, almost as if he was scared or frightened. "You okay," Mike asked bluntly, ignoring the fact that he was the one bleeding on the cement. This brought a small smile to the boy's face.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine," he replied in an unusually high voice, "I think your more of the issue right now." Mike laughed and wiped some of the Karn blood from his face with his free hand. The other was pressed tightly to his bullet wound as the teen crouched next to him giving him a good look at him.

His facial features were fragile, almost like he was unaccustomed to Sera's harsh life. This surprised the Corporal but he kept his face calm and uninterested.

"Yeah, I didn't think the son of a bitch would even get the shot off," Mike admitted. His voice was full of annoyance as he looked down at his wound again frowning.

"Y-your not gonna bleed out or some shit like t-that are you?" Nervous was definitely the word to describe the teen as the Corporal smirked.

"I'll last a good ten minutes," he answered absently blinking blood out of his eyes. "But I think I can get up and walk kid, give me a damn hand would cha?" Uncertainly the teen stood moving to the Corporal's feet holding out a surprisingly small and bony hand.

Mike's bloody, tattooed covered, hand grasped his instantly and with a tug he was on his feet. Blood running down his chest piece like a river making him frown again.

"Shit man, y-you really gonna be alright?" Mike looked at the teen smiling yet again; the voice and his concerned face were just so unique in a civilian to a gear.

"I'm fine, right now I'm worried of getting you out of here kid." Suddenly the duo was blinded by huge headlights rolling down the hilled street towards them. They both put their fore arms up and squinted as the massive vehicle came to an abrupt stop and the hatch on top suddenly flew open. A friendly red haired girl popped out smiling.

"Hey Simmons, need a ride_?" The teen stared at the Corporal with interest as he grinned crazily and slowly began to hobble towards the armadillo with the teen following behind him. _

**XVX**

The armadillo flew around the corner stopping relatively near the gas station. The gears inside the armadillo remained silent for a few seconds observing the massive yellow beam that was ripping apart the bridge noisily. It was finally the driver who broke the silence, "Emily you better get in there. I don't know how serious the causality is." The Private brushed her red hair out of her face and blinked as she calmly grasped the medical kit resting on her lap that had been in the armadillo's rear.

"Right," she said trying to sound confident. Jon caught her nervousness and popped the hatch to the armadillo revealing the lightening sky. It was now a peachy yellow as morning was finally coming erasing the darkness that had once engulfed all of Sera.

Cor. Simmons, Amy, and Zeke, as the boy had called himself, moved out of Emily's way letting her out first then followed suit with Jon close behind. Right away they jogged into the gas station to find both Lieutenant's and most of their squad mates surrounding a pale Corporal Damon Mielke. The African American's dreads were moved out of his face and his eyes were closed as he exhaled and inhaled rapidly. He was unconsciousness.

"About damn time you got here," Lt. Eckhart greeted them adjusting his glasses. "You better get straight to work Pvt. Hefresson, we haven't been able to the stop the bleeding yet," he said standing and staring in disbelief at the green haired Corporal towards the back of the group. "What the hell? Cor. Simmons, you're alive?"

Emily rushed past the Echo Squad Lieutenant hastily setting the kit down beginning to examine Cor. Mielke. Her emerald eyes searched his blood spattered chest piece and reacting smartly began to unclasp his chest piece. She didn't even bother looking at Fixer who was staring at her quite obviously from his position by the window. He was facing her on his good side, so she hadn't even noticed his wound yet…

"I managed to survive," was all the Echo Squad Corporal said about that before he scanned the station frowning, "Where's Dalia?"

Lt. Eckhart sighed and flashed Cor. Stiletto a glance of pity. "She's dead son."

Immediately Mike's eyes widened, "WHAT? Dalia! Dead?" Lt. Eckhart nodded firmly while Matt, Amy, Fixer, Jon, and Stiletto observed. Suddenly the gear threw his lancer down kicking the wall angrily, "Son of a bitch! Where is she? Did somebody grab her tags at least!"

Matt held up his lancer calmly, "I did," he said assuring the gear who nodded briefly before walking outside. Zeke watched him uncertainly and then turned back to the other gears to realize they were all staring at him.

"W-what? Something wrong?"

"No nothing's wrong kid," Stiletto laughed as he scratched his five o'clock shadow. "Lt. Eckhart, should I take them outside and stand watch instead of from inside? That way Pvt. Hefresson has more space to work?"

Eckhart nodded instantly, "Good idea Corporal, Cor. Downey, go with them." Suddenly Amy wrapped an arm around Zeke and escorted him out. He hesitantly did so uncertain of what he should exactly be doing. The Corporals obeyed their orders and followed them out, Jon now had his lancer he left behind earlier.

"Okay somebody help me get this off," Emily requested as she began attempting to remove the heavy armor from Mielke. Fixer raced to the wounded gear before Matt making the bald Lieutenant raise his brow. Emily looked up from the unconscious Mielke at Fixer and gasped.

"You're face! Oh my gosh, what happened?" Fixer set the armor aside and turned back to her from across Mielke firmly.

"Don't worry about it, he's more important right now," he said briskly. Emily stared in shock before shaking herself and bending back over Mielke who's once white tank top was stained in blood.

Fixer moved away back to his spot getting a worried glance from Emily before she got to work fumbling through the medical kit. "Um, Lt. Eckhart? Can you please take his shirt off for me?"

Just as fast as Fixer had been the older gear obeyed the request and now a shirtless Mielke lay on the cool tile. He was bleeding from three different places scattered across his torso. Each wound clearly still holding the bullet; his armor had definitely given way. Bad business considering the torso held so many vital organs. She had to work fast and she knew it.

Shaking she began to wipe away the sticky dark blood from his lower stomach. She frowned grimly while the rest of the gears in the station watched grimly. Soon she had a pair of medical pliers and was digging into the hole for the bullet. She closed her eyes for a second and froze. Suddenly she felt a firm hand on her shoulder pad surprising her.

She looked up into Matt's blue eyes, "You can do this. It's what you've been trained for Emily, just relax, your own doubts can be your worst enemy." She nodded and once again resumed digging for the bullet; finally she clamped the tool around it and yanked pulling it out along with more blood.

"Lt. Eckhart I need you to put your hands on that and push, it needs to stop bleeding." Eckhart crouched down obeying her and watched with concern as she began cleaning the next bullet wound on Mielke's right pectoral_. One thing was for certain, Mielke wasn't going be ready for action any time soon… if he lived… _

**XVX**

The beam disappeared again and Mike sighed as he gazed down at Dalia's unmoving body. He was standing alone, with Jon, Stiletto, Amy, and Zeke watching him from the entrance of the station. Suddenly Zeke pulled away from the others and was moving towards him.

The teenager stopped awkwardly staring at the dead woman with intrigue. "You knew her? I'm guessing?" Mike shot her look that kind of said _DUH _but kept his face calm and his lips sealed. Zeke rubbed his hand uncertainly and sat down on the slab of concrete that her body was propped up against. "I'm sorry."

Mike turned to her with raised brows, "Shit, it's not your fault," was all he said before walking past towards the others. Zeke followed him with his eyes and hopped up the slab following him closely.

Mike noticed but ignored the teen and slumped down against the wall of the station next to Stiletto. The teenager sat down next to him opposite of Stiletto, staring at the ruined city absently. Stiletto couldn't help but chuckle, Mike shooting him a glare.

There was an eerie silence as they all awaited Mielke's status. With the bridge out now, none of them were exactly certain as to how they were leaving. But when Matt emerged from the station, they all figured that's exactly what they would hear.

"Well? What's the status on Damon, Lieutenant?" Cor. Stiletto was standing trying to stare past Matt into the station.

He nodded slowly, "He's doing okay. Emily is doing the best she can at fixing him up and doing a damn good job of it. Listen, HQ can finally send two ravens out here to get us. Were all set for pick up in five, so everyone be ready!"

"About damn time," Mike muttered from his spot against the wall. Matt glanced at him quickly frowning.

"I don't know, I think everyone's probably experienced worst at some point," Jon said trying to throw some humor into the gloom. For the most part it failed, only getting a small smile from Stiletto.

"Um, Lt. Dunbar?" Matt stepped past Stiletto to Amy who was looking around rather concerned, "Where's Corey?" Matt pointed his lancer down with one hand and pointed with his free hand to the roof top where he, Fixer, and Downey once were.

"He's up there; he's finishing up the hammer sweep of the bridge. He should be on his way down with Sgt. Rhodes right now," he explained. Amy looked relieved right away and she stopped playing with her thumbs smiling weakly.

"Thanks, I just hoped something awful hadn't… well… you kn-," Matt nodded. "I know what you mean," he finished softly patting her on the shoulder. "Trust me, he's fine."

Amy nodded and moved away to stare at the demolished bridge. Matt watched then turned his attention to Zeke who was watching him intensely. "And who are you," Matt asked, his voice friendly.

"Name's Zeke," the teen responded quickly, trying to give his voice a hard edge. Matt chuckled and crouched down in front of him to examine his choice of clothing with a puzzled look. "What? Got a problem with how I dress," the teen snapped harshly making Mike nudge him.

"Watch it, your talking to a Lieutenant," he scolded making Matt chuckle.

"No, its fine Corporal, not everyone has to like me," he said standing up back to full height. The teen scowled at him and he returned it with a firm smile before walking back into the station. Mike rolled his eyes at Zeke making the teen frown.

"What? Did I do something wrong?"

Mike just shook his head and ran a hand through his messy hair grunting due to his chest wound that Emily had already tended to. The pain was still very much there though. "Then why did you bitch at me?"

Mike simply ignored the teen and stood, gripping his lancer he moved away calmly leaving Zeke to stare. Stiletto was snickering at the teen from the other side of the stations entrance making Zeke shoot him a glare that he shrugged off with ease. Suddenly Lt. Eckhart emerged from the station, his hands covered in blood obviously from Mielke.

"Affirmative Maria, I see em," he announced sounding happy for once. Everyone followed his gaze upwards at the rising sun where two ravens buzzed rhythmically towards them over the demolished bridge. "_Ladies and gentlemen," he called out, "Prepare for departure!" _

_**Riddick Writer: And this concludes our Quinta act! So they actually found two survivors, does that really make the mission a success though? And what about Cor. Mielke, was Emily able to save him? **_

_**A lot of questions that will all be answered at some point in the story! Mielke's fate obviously in the next chapter! Next chapter our gears take a breather and we see some interesting interactions amongst the gears and get some shocking news about a certain COG General. **_

_**HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE CHAPTER! CYA NEXT TIME FOLKS! OH AND 50 REVIEWS! I'M LOVING IT! (Just keep in mind I'm no longer accepting OC's) XD **_


	16. Chapter 15

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 15: Second Story Same As The First**

_**Riddick Writer: Get some shocking info on what's really going down in this new war! In other words, significant chapter, enjoy! **_

__Both ravens touched down at the same time sending dirt from the battlefield flying in all directions. Immediately two gears hopped off one running towards the station with a stretcher, red first aid symbols stamped on their shoulder pads. "Excuse us coming through," one called out as they rushed past Stiletto inside.

Lt. Eckhart watched grimly and adjusted his glasses not even noticing Stiletto who approached him slowly. "How was he doing when you walked out here?" Eckhart looked up at the Corporal and sighed.

"Pvt. Hefresson fixed him up pretty damn good, she was a bit fidgety, but I think she saved a life today alright." Sure enough just at the Lieutenant finished the reply the medics came rushing back out with a moaning Mielke. He was conscious again, that was a good sign. Mike joined Eckhart and Stiletto to watch their squad mate and the medics as the neared the raven preparing to load Mielke.

"What exactly happened with Dalia," Mike asked suddenly, making Eckhart frown just as Cor. Rollard and Sgt. Rhodes emerged from the entrance of the building Rico Squad had fired the hammer of dawn from.

"We were pinned down right where she's laying now… and well let's just say-," he was interrupted by Corey's sudden yell. 

"SNIPERS!" Almost immediately a cascade of booming shots descended upon the gears. Everyone leaped to the ground to the best of their abilities.

"Everyone get on board the choppers now," Matt yelled as he dashed out of the station waving his muscular arms frantically. Both Fixer and Emily chased him out and made a dead sprint to the nearest raven. "Split up by Squads!"

Suddenly another duo of shots rang this time followed by an agonizing scream. Matt whipped towards one of the ravens breaking into a sprint and almost vomited at the sight of one of the medics falling to the cement screaming. His left arm was blown clean off, lying in a pool of blood underneath the raven.

"Oh my god, Corey is someone going to help him," Amy cried just as she clambered into a raven Corey right behind her. He shot a look at the wounded medic and grimly stepped aboard the raven pushing Amy to the back of it.

"Nothing we can do we gotta get out of here now!" As if matching his words another shot boomed nearly taking Cor. Downey's leg off as he leapt aboard.

"YOU FUCKERS ARE SPINELESS! DO YOU HEAR ME! GO BURN IN HELL!" Leonardo stood in the open screaming insults like a mad man. He waved his retro lancer fiercely daring them to shoot him until out of nowhere Mike ran in front of him his long green hair swinging as he slid to a stop.

"Leonardo we have to leave, now! Get on, let's go damnit! Don't be a fucking idiot!" The Corporal began pushing Leonardo who finally gave in realizing that Mike was alive for the first time to begin with. He suddenly broke into a hefty laugh as he finally climbed onto the raven with the rest of Rico Squad. Once he was on Mike took a few steps back and watched the raven lift off.

"Is he dead," Stiletto called from the other grounded chopper. Mike spun around knowing he meant the medic. It didn't take Mike long to figure out that he was, the loss of an arm caused a mass bleed out that probably killed the guy in seconds. "Simmons! We don't have all damn day! If he's dead get on board already damn it!"

Soon there was a chorus of shouts from the raven at Mike as he raced towards the medic's corpse. Zeke actually jumped off on the chopper and began running towards the green haired Corporal wide eyed.

Bending over Mike snatched the cog tags from the medics and turned around just in time to catch Zeke at the waist and heave him up onto his shoulder. "HEY MAN! What the fuck," Zeke protested angrily.

Mike ignored the teen's dislike of being carried and throwing down his lancer made a sprint for the raven just as another shot echoed. He heard whiz past him seconds before he flopped Zeke in the chopper and dived in next to him.

"WERE ALL ON! GO SON! GET THIS BITCH IN THE AIR NOW," Lt. Eckhart ordered so loudly that his voice went hoarse. Nodding the pilot began to descend into the air after the Rico Squad raven which was a good two minutes ahead of them. When the raven was finally a good hundred meters of the ground they were finally declared safe by the pilot and all of them took a deep breath.

"They got Mielke on the other chopper right," Stiletto asked as he drew his two knives from his belt and began running them together. Lt. Eckhart wiped a wave of sweat from his forehead and nodded slowly. _His face was red from exhaustion; he was definitely getting too old for these 24 plus hour missions… _

**XVX**

"I'm sorry… but he was dead within second after he took the shot. It would have been pointless trying to saving him," Matt explained to the medic who shook his helmeted head furiously from the cockpit of the raven next to the pilot.

"NO! You guys could have done something instead of just leaving me to watch him die!" Matt removed his blue eyes from the angry medic and stared out the raven's open side at the puffy, white, clouds lazily floating in the morning sky. Life would be so much easier if he could just lay on one…

"Whatever man, next time I just hope its one of you guys," the medic growled as the turned away from the back of the raven folding his arms. Matt simply sighed and looked at Corey who had his helmet on the floor resting next to Mielke who took up the majority of the raven's floor space. Corey shook his head in response understanding what Matt was getting at.

"Hey man if you couldn't do anything to save him what could we of done! Huh?" Fixer was standing and yelling at the medic before Matt with assistance from Leonardo pulled him back down.

Matt grabbed him by the shoulders and stared at him sternly. "Fixer, leave it."

Frowning, the blonde haired Private pulled away and stared at the floor gloomily. Lying on the ground Mielke was observing the scene with interest. He looked from Corey, Amy, and Emily near his head to Matt, Leonardo, and Fixer by his feet.

"Hey," he said uncertainly, his voice was weak and nauseated.

"Shh, don't strain yourself talking," Emily said briskly as she leaned over to examine his wounds. The Echo Squad Corporal grinned at her.

"I'm fine… did my squad make it out okay," he gasped staring at Matt. The bald Lieutenant nodded confidently unloading the clip from his lancer.

"They made it okay. I'm certain. In fact let me double check right now," he told the Corporal placing a hand on his ear. "Echo Squad come in, this is Lt. Dunbar." A few seconds of static passed before Eckhart's voice came thorough a little louder than Matt's liking.

"Were here Dunbar, what did cha need?"

"Just checking up on you guys, any causalities with boarding?"

"Negative, all of my squad minus Cor. Mielke made it on. We also have the kid with us, any causalities on your end Lieutenant?"

"No, we all made it out okay." The medic shot a glare through the visor of his helmet at Matt then turned away quickly again. "Alright Eck, I'll see you when we land at Hanar Outpost, Rico Squad out."

"Sounds good Dunbar, we'll see ya there! Echo Squad out."

Mielke still stared at Matt with raised brows. "Well?"

"They're fine. No injuries and everyone made it on okay," Matt explained with a smile. That was probably some of the best news they've had all day.

Mielke chuckled to himself making a face of pain afterwards. Emily frowned and moved from the bench to the floor next to him, her back to the edge of the raven. "Hey man, try not to move too much. You should try and get some more rest," Corey said his green eyes scanning over the wraps around his wounds.

Mielke moaned and shut eyes giving Emily a chance to smile her thanks at Corey who returned the smile. "I'm impressed Corporal Simmons survived, he must have a strong spirit to have come back from the dead," Leonardo mentioned getting some looks from the group. Mielke was especially surprised from his position on the floor.

"Wait, Mike's alive? How?"

Leonardo shrugged and just grinned. "He faked his own death hoping to get the jump on them," Emily explained suddenly making Leonardo's grin disappear and his eyes widen in surprise. Corey gave Matt a thoughtful look.

"You know, for a guy named Mike 'Mayhem' Simmons, he's pretty smart," Corey said with a smirk. Leonardo laughed heftily at that while Mielke just smiled shaking his head. It must be terrible losing a squad mate on your first mission together… then again, Matt probably knew Corporal Dalia Carson better than anyone. Except for maybe Eck… because back in the day, the old Echo Squad consisted of the three of them, Dalia being a Private at the time.

Sighing Matt slowly removed the tags from his lancer and held them up in front of his face. He let his blue eyes read over her name engraved into the tags, she never even lived to be twenty six years old…

When Matt lowered them out of his face he caught Corey staring calmly with his eyes. They seemed to burn right through Matt, and the Lieutenant couldn't help feel that Corey knew what he was feeling.

"So you said we were going to uh, an outpost? What does that mean for me exactly?" Amy's face was one of worry as she looked from Corey to Matt brushing her dirty brunette hair out of her face.

Corey patted her on the back softly, "Don't worry the outpost is serving as a refugee camp right now too. You'll be safe there, I promise." She sighed nodding and quickly regained her composure.

"What's next for you guys then?"

"Probably another suicide run," Fixer grunted unhappily making Matt frown. Fixer turned and noticed and put his arms up. "What? Are you trying to tell me that's not what it was? We had to go directly downtown!"

Fixer looked from Matt to Corey both who calmly held his gaze. He suddenly looked down at Emily but she quickly looked away as if she was a five year old trying not to talk to strangers.

"Fixer, you have to understand that as gears it's out duty to obey the high command, no matter what the cost," Corey finally said not taking his eyes of Fixer's. The Private nodded and stared out the raven at the sky.

"You're right. I don't know… I just don't feel like we accomplished anything. You know?" Corey sighed and suddenly received unexpected help from the massive Sergeant flanking Corey.

"But we did accomplish something young one. We killed at least a good hundred of the bastards, and only for one of our own. The numbers add up eventually my friend, just give it time." Fixer gave the Sergeant an odd look that he returned with a smile. "You'll see."

"Alright were five minutes from the LZ! Everyone prepare to land in five," the pilot announced joyfully.

"Alright thanks for the heads up," Matt called back looking around at his squad. "When we land I want everyone to put your weapons and armor in the armory at the outpost, then get a good nights rest. We still don't know what our next assignment is." _With a nod of approval from the rest of his squad Matt leaned back into the wall straightening himself with pleasure that rest was finally on its way. _

**XVX**

The first of the ravens began circling Hanar Outpost preparing to land on the large landing pad in the center of the sea of white tents. Casually walking towards the pad was Col. Vinson himself, he was unarmed and wearing a standard issue cog uniform. Squinting at the raven as he finally began to descend, his wrinkly face contorted into a smile.

In a matter of fifty or so second the craft came to a complete stop on the pad. Both the pilot and medic got out immediately while Rico Squad took their time unloading themselves. The Colonel watched Matt with interest as he leapt off the raven last quickly moving so the medic could get a hold of Mielke's stretcher. "One of you guys wanna help me carry _your _wounded," the medic asked putting a big emphasis on 'your'.

Matt turned back to him ready to assist but Emily was already on the other side of the stretcher carrying Mielke away from the raven towards the massive medical tent about thirty yards away. "Lt. Dunbar! You looked a little slow getting off that thing! What's the matter, tired!"

Matt whipped around to face Col. Vinson in astonishment. "Col. Vinson, I didn't expect to see you out here," he said, his surprise was quite obvious in his tone just as the second raven appeared over head.

Vinson glanced up for a second then back to Matt and eventually let his gaze fall on Amy who was standing by Corey observing the outpost curiously. Several civilians sitting outside a tent near by were staring back at her, typical reaction when survivors see survivors…

"Dunbar, I want to see you, Lt. Eckhart, and all the civilians you rescued in the debriefing tent over there," he indicated it behind him. Matt wanted to shoot himself at the thought of debriefing but it had to be done. Plus maybe Amy and Zeke could offer some Intel on their enemies.

"Yes sir, Eck and I will be in there ASAP." Vinson saluted the Lieutenant then spinning on his heel, slowly began making his way towards so called tent. Matt spun around just in time to practically run into Amy.

"Did he say I have to go in to?"

"Yeah, it's no big deal just going to ask you a few questions is all," Matt assured her but it was too no avail. She shook her head frantically and moved back to Corey's side grabbing hold of his arm.

"Can Corey come in too then? Please?" Corey raised his brows at her and turned his gaze to Matt who shrugged.

"I don't see why not," he said with a smile making Amy smile back a little. She was certainly clingy to the Corporal, probably because they've known each other so long. Trust like that could be a powerful thing, Matt knew that too well.

Beginning to zone out with his thoughts, Matt didn't even notice Lt. Eckhart and the rest of Echo Squad approach. "Well Dunbar? What's next on the list?"

He turned to the other Lieutenant in surprise, "Questioning our survivors. I don't know about you but I'm going to tell the rest of my squad to take a break, they need it." Eckhart nodded and adjusted his glasses before moving back to inform his squad. Matt did the same waving Fixer and Leonardo over to him, Corey, and Amy.

He looked the patient Sergeant in the eyes. The big scarred man appeared to be extremely interested. Was it because he was eager to get some rest? Or eager to find out what he gets to shoot next?

"Alright, Hanar Outpost, it's serving as a cog camp slash refugee camp. So be on your best behavior to the refugees. Other than that, everyone go dump your gear in the armory and go get a rest for the day. Half of us look like we could fall over anyways," he added humor hoping to get a few smiles. To his delight Fixer gave off a little grin while Leonardo chuckled.

"I'll let Emily know," Fixer said quietly getting nod from Matt. Then in a matter of seconds the Private turned away already jogging to the medical tent. The rest of the squad watched with interest when Lt. Eckhart suddenly reappeared next to Matt following their gaze.

"What the hell we looking at?" Matt laughed instantly and slapped the Leiutenant on the back.

"Nothing Eck, but come on, let's go this damn debriefing over with so we get finally sleep." The Echo Squad leader stroked his mustache and smiled slightly as he, Matt, Amy, and Corey broke away from Leonardo.

"Yeah, til we get woken up in the middle of night because of a raid," Eckhart grunted making Matt smirk. If that happened Matt was pretty sure he would stay in bed holding his lancer and watching the door…

Suddenly Amy stopped and Corey hardly took two steps before doing the same. He looked at her puzzled his green eyes searching her features for a sign of what she was thinking. "What about Zeke? Shouldn't he be here too?"

Corey whipped around at the two Lieutenants who were now about ten yards from the tent. "Hey! What about that Zeke kid! Shouldn't he be here too?" Both Lieutenants stopped giving each other a look before turning back to the Corporal. Lt. Eckhart shrugged just as the two ravens that had dropped them off took off into the sky. The four of them watched until they were out of ear shot before Eckhart spoke.

"He's like eighteen or some shit, doubt he'd have much useful info anyways," Eckhart muttered turning to Matt. Matt made a stern face and nodded hesitantly.

"Yeah… I guess we'll be okay with just Amy for now. We can always go find Zeke later," he agreed getting a nod from Corey who began leading Amy towards them. "I'm curious to see what other survivors have been saying about the attacks," Matt admitted to Eckhart as they started walking again.

The other Lieutenant nodded his face content with staring at the green tent. A helmeted gear stood outside the flap inside open for them. "It'd be appreciated if you left all weapons out here," he said absently indicating a container near by.

Obeying, both men dropped their lancers and gnashers inside the container along with their hand guns. The gear nodded his thanks and stepped aside to let them in just as Corey and Amy stopped to do the same.

Inside the tent wasn't much. It was fairly large, probably ten by ten feet, with a massive wooden table surrounded by chairs in the center. A few monitors were sitting on desks around the table while paperwork took up most of the table space.

Upon entering Matt and Eckhart nodded a greeting to Colonel Vinson who was examining a file closely. He nodded in return and continued to examine the file until Corey stepped in quietly with Amy. She was looking very nervous…

As soon as Corey and Amy sat down, Vinson slapped the folder shut and placed it on the table. He then stood up locking his arms behind his back as he began to pace on his side of the table opposite of the tent's other occupants.

"It appears that our first offensive in this war against the Karn forces has failed miserably," he began darkly. "Yesterday we had over a six hundred causalities including two hundred KIA gears, and the rest MIA. In all we lost nearly eighty squads in a day… so my first question… is what the hell happened out there!"

Matt was a little taken aback by the Colonel's sudden yell but regained composure quickly. "Ambushes Colonel, that's their entire strategy for this war," Corey said briskly making the Colonel shoot him an odd look.

"Corporal Rollard, what are you doing in here? You damn well know only high ranking officers of the Cog are allowed in on debriefing." Corey frowned and ran a hand through his black hair his green eye darting to Matt's for a second.

"I know the rule sir, I apologize… I'll stay quiet for the rest of the meeting." Vinson's facial wrinkles contorted into confusioin but he quickly forgot about the Corporal and went back to staring at Matt.

"My question Lt. Dunbar, I want an answer!"

"Corporal Rollard couldn't have said it better. The search and rescue missions were almost exactly what the Karn wanted us to do it seems. The amount of ambushes they had set up for us in Quinta proves that they knew we'd try and come in for survivors…" Vinson frowned and paced quickly to a monitor furiously stabbing buttons on the key board. The screen lit up quickly flashing a series of words that nobody across the table could read.

"Is she the only survivor you found," Vinson questioned without even looking.

"No there was one other that one of my squad found, a teenager, but I figured it'd be useless bringing him in to question," Eckhart spoke up gruffly. He was obviously trying to cover the fact that they had forgotten to even tell the teen to come with them.

Vinson turned back to them nodding. "I see. I like you're decision Lt. Eckhart, he would probably prove useless." He took a few casual steps to the table and lifted up a packet of paperwork, "Before I get the run down on the mission itself, may I ask your name, miss?"

Amy bolted straight up in her chair. Her face was wide with alertness, "Amy, sir, you can just call me Amy." Vinson nodded setting the paperwork down.

"Fair enough Amy, tell me, how did you happen to survive the Karn attack on Quinta?" Amy gulped and looked down at her feet immediately. Her face gave away the fact that she didn't want to talk about it. But obviously the Colonel didn't pick up on that, and if he did, he ignored it. "Well?"

Matt watched Corey uneasily. The Corporal was naturally calm, but he could tell Corey didn't like Vinson's way of questioning.

"W-well, the day of the attack I was walking home… it all happened so fast, I heard several explosions from behind me. When I turned around, the entire street behind me seemed to have been destroyed… before I knew it; they're hundreds of them climbing out of random holes… just like E-day!" Vinson nodded slowly; the Colonel had probably been hearing similar stories all day from other survivors.

"So I ran of course, at first they all started shooting. The initial crowd of people running… they… they… got slaughtered, massacred! It was awful," she began to sob into her hands. Corey wrapped a strong arm around her, urging her to go on. Vinson watched in stony silence, his eyes occasionally moving to Matt and Eckhart who sat silently.

"But, but, that wasn't the worst of it… Some people, they simply walked up to and knocked out. I saw them actually push one man to the ground, he was screaming and fighting but," she choked up for a second. "He couldn't get away, they… just dragged him by his legs and tossed him down one of their holes!" She looked up tears falling down her cheeks like waterfalls.

"They kept doing this, grabbing people, alive… and throwing them down their holes. If it wouldn't have been for another woman I'd probably be in the same place…" She led off suddenly stopping to stare at the table solemnly. "I don't know where they took them or what they're doing to them… But that's pretty much all I know about the attack itself…"

Vinson sat down and leaned back in his chairs folding his arms. He made a firm face as if thinking and bit his lip. Finally after a minute's silence he nodded, "Thank you, Amy, Corporal Rollard, you and Amy may be leave now."

"Thank you sir," Corey said as he briskly helped Amy out of the chair making for the door. Matt watched him and nodded a goodbye, the Corporal smiled weakly in return before disappearing outside.

"Well, that was exactly the same story I've heard all day," Vinson muttered in annoyance. Eckhart adjusted his glasses and chuckled.

"That makes sense why we didn't any civilian corpses in the streets," Matt admitted. Vinson nodded grimly glancing at the monitor.

"So the Karn are kidnapping civilians, not just massacring them, so now here's the new question, why?" The Colonel gave Matt and Eckhart a longing look. "I wish I knew," he sighed heavily slumping back in his chair.

Both Matt and Eckhart frowned. War was never a fun topic. Neither were innocents being involved in it, but when innocents got kidnapped for no reason? That was just uncalled for, ruthless, brutal, beyond evil.

"Nothing we can do about it right now though," Vinson said as he opened a folder and revealed a piece of paper and pen. _"So let's hear you're mission's run down, seeing that you two are the only squads to survive Quinta." _

_**Riddick Writer: Well things got a little more interesting! Not only did the Cog get their asses kicked in their first offensive, but the Karn are taking living civilians underground… questions is why? **_

_**Next chapter will probably be much slower paced but we'll get some cool character building in! Oh and hey, remember who likes reviews? Haha were at 53 let's try and get to a hundred! :P (Oh and sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes I did not have time to go over this chapter) **_


	17. Chapter 16

**Gears of War 4: Rico Squad**

**Chapter 16: Recovery**

_**Riddick Writer: Sorry for the super long update you guys! I've been busy! Really busy! Anyways, enjoy the chapter! **_

"Get that IV in his arm now," one of the outpost's doctors ordered as Mielke was placed on the mattress gently. The Echo Squad Corporal's eyes were closed once again, his breathing shallow. If Emily didn't know better from her viewing point at the foot of the bed, she would think he was sleeping…

Instead, her green eyes flicked with worry over his bare chest. The bandages were wrapped poorly around the wounds and already stained with dark crimson fluid. Despite her best efforts, one bullet still remained in him. The other two she had successfully removed. Even so, he was bleeding fiercely again.

"Damn it," one of the doctor's muttered, "I said get that IV in!" Emily's youthful face watched in content and worry as one of the other doctors fumbled for the equipment. For a simple tent, they really had just about everything in medical technology crammed in here… Along with five more beds covered in severely wounded gears.

Emily was so caught up in the scene. The smell of blood, the moaning of wounded, doctors shouting commands, it was nothing close to what her training had prepared her for. Sighing she closed her eyes for a moment and stared downwards, her mind scrambling over the days events. Her first mission, about twenty four straight hours of non-stop action… Did most gears first missions go like that?

Suddenly she felt a firm hand grasp her shoulder ripping her out of her thoughts.

Standing next to her, his gaze fixed on Mielke, was Fixer. His blonde hair messier than ever and his face showing an indescribable exhaustion. Emily stared in interest and finally he turned to her locking his eyes with hers. They continued the connection as Emily parted her lips and moved a soft hand to the right side of his head. Gently she ran her fingers along the bloody scrap that ran across the side of head. Fixer winced a little and began raising his hand to hers.

He smirked and gently grabbed her wrist moving it away slowly. "What happened," she whispered her tone obvious with concern.

"Just had a little run in with fate," he replied calmly. "Stuff like that tends to happen when you join the military." Emily just gawped at him and shook her head smiling weakly. The two Privates didn't even notice one of the tent's many doctors sneak up on them.

He coughed loudly obliterating the moment.

"Um, excuse me, can you two get out of here? We're extremely busy and you two are kind of well… in the way." Both Privates turned to him shocked out of their conversation and nodded frantically. In a matter of seconds both were outside of the large medical tent starting at each other once again. Both now had a clueless air to them as they gazed around the outpost bewildered at all the refugees and gears moving about.

There was a moment of silence before Fixer scratched the back of his head and caught sight of the armory. "I suppose we should go get all this crap off," Fixer said indicating the armor. Emily giggled and nodded in agreement. Fixer then wasted no time striding off, Emily literally had to jog the first few feet to catch up and fall in step with him.

She gave him a questioning look opening her mouth to speak, but then turned away quickly. It was much too late however; Fixer had caught the look and was smirking once more. "Something you wanted to ask me?"

Emily blushed fiercely as she looked down at her feet. Inside her head she was panicking. This is war! You can't join the Cog and just start hooking up with guys! You're here to help fight!

"Uh, nothing… do… do you think the mission was a success?" The question was far from her original one, but much more professional. Just like their relationship had to be. They were gears… squad mates… nothing more, nothing less.

Fixer made a look of deep thought. "Well you heard me on the ride over," he started disdainfully. "We lost way too many people today… Dalia, that medic at the pick up zone, and how many whole squads? I don't know Emily, I just feel like we lost more than we gained," he muttered just as they neared the entrance of the massive armory tent. In size it was one of the biggest tents in the outpost, but it was still only half the size of the mess hall by the debriefing tent…

Emily frowned deeply at his response and shifted her shoulders uncomfortably. Her armor was really beginning to wear her down, so was the lancer in her hands now that she thought about it. It had never occurred to her how heavy the stuff would actually be when she first joined.

The outpost's requisition officer was busily examining a taken apart gnasher shotgun on a long wooden table. He looked up at the two as they walked in with raised brows on his scarred face and smiled. "Ah, finally done with your mission and get to take the ol' armor off, eh?"

Fixer and Emily nodded eagerly as the stared in awe at all the weapons mounted behind him on metal racks. Countless lancers, gnashers, long shots, snub pistols, and even grenades of various sorts lined the wall. The officer caught them staring and turned to follow their gaze putting his hands on his hips.

He turned back to them smiling broadly, "Yep, and all the armor is over there," he indicated the larger side of the tent. Sure enough, shiny cog chest pieces, shoulder pads, and helmets lined that wall just like he had said.

"Christ this place almost makes the HQ back in New Jacinto look like a joke," Fixer commented as he began stripping his weapons and setting them on the table. The officer smiled at that and took a step across from the blonde haired gear reaching for the old retro lancer. Immediately Fixer placed a hand across it, "You can take the ammo in the chamber, but this gun is mine."

The officer furrowed his brow with a puzzled look. "If you say so," he finally grunted then watched Fixer unload the gun. Emily watched from behind in interest. She remembered their last day at HQ before the mission; he had said the old retro lancer had belonged to his dad during the Pendulum wars. That gun must mean a lot to him…

Carrying a pile of metal in his arms the officer moved to the racks to place them in their respective spots. Meanwhile Emily stepped forward next to Fixer who was now un-strapping his shoulder pads. She set her lancer down on the table softly and watched as Fixer did the same with his first shoulder pad followed by the other. "Feels so good to finally get rid of all this stuff," he said absent mindedly making Emily nod in agreement.

After a few minutes, the two Privates stood looking at each other unarmored for the first time in awhile. Emily was wearing a white t-shirt and sweats while Fixer wore a plain gray tank top and similar black sweats. "You two look a lot smaller now don't cha," the officer said from across the tent as he set a chest piece on a rack.

"Yeah, a lot smaller," Emily agreed as she gazed down at herself. She had forgotten how she looked without the blue and black cog armor.

"Feels so good to be free," Fixer yawned loudly stretching his aching arms. "I think I'm gonna hit the showers and sleep the day away!" Emily giggled respectively at that and brushed her red hair out of her face.

"I think I'm just going to bed. After being shot at all day, sleep sounds good right about now… I'll worry about hygiene tomorrow." Fixer smiled at that. Sure they were dirty, sweaty, and gross, but hey, it was war. Appearance doesn't matter much when staring down another living thing trying to kill you…

They both said good bye to the officer and left the tent back in the morning sun. Both stretching constantly as their aching muscles screamed with relief from their armor. "Well, I guess I'll see you around then," Fixer said happily smiling at her. She returned the smile immediately making direct eye contact with him once again.

"Yep, I'm not going anywhere," she replied cheerfully. _Then with a quick wave to each other they both turned and walked opposite directions across the outpost to the respective male and female barracks…_

**XVX**

Mike Mayhem Simmons sat on top of a pile of crates behind the mess hall. He was shirtless, revealing his body of ink and wearing a simple pair of black jeans. His black bandanna was absent on his forehead and instead tied around his green hair to form a pony tail.

Suddenly he reached into his pocket and revealed the same carton of cigarettes he had back in Quinta. Then just like before, he lit one and quickly placed it in his mouth inhaling fiercely. When he yanked it out, he sighed out a massive puff of smoke.

Looking up he caught sight of a group of refugee children playing soccer on the grassy field that separated the mess hall tent from the refugee tents that littered the large outpost's area. He couldn't help but smile as he took drag from his cig. "At least we helped some people Dalia," he muttered to himself out loud staring up at the clouds.

He lazily blinked his eyes and took another drag letting the smoke go into the air before looking back down to find an old friend. The massive hairy Sergeant grinned at him from the bottom of the crates. He laughed heftily, "Now tell me my brother in arms, how the hell did you survive?"

Mike chuckled happily at the sight of the Sergeant. "Leonardo! I should have known you find me laying around eventually… Long story short I fell right when he shot, making it seem like he killed me. So basically, I got fucking lucky," he laughed. Leonardo shot him a crazy grin and scratched his beard with one of his massive paws.

"Good to know you're still around brother… This war wouldn't be as fun without cha," he replied still grinning ear to ear. Mike laughed properly again before taking another drag from his cig making Leonardo frown as he plopped himself down on a crate. It literally screeched under the big gear's weight but he didn't seem bothered by it.

"You know those things will put you in heaven right?"

Mike gazed up at the sky again half smiling. He slowly looked back down at Leonardo with the same expression. "I'm well aware of it, but this war is gonna kill us all eventually, right?" Leonardo grunted loudly closing his eyes and nodding solemnly as his head sunk to his feet. Sitting like that the massive gear almost looked peaceful, and not the blood craving beast he was on the battlefield…

"I believe your right," he sighed as he slowly looked up at the sky. "This once beautiful land now reeks with the stench of blood and death… We thought we were going to save it by defeating the Locust and Lambent, but now… we all see the truth." Mike furrowed his brows and let out another puff of smoke from his mouth.

"What's the truth?"

Leonardo chuckled at Mike like a teacher would to a naïve student. "That peace will never exist on Sera," he said simply making Mike take another quick drag of his half finished cig.

He let out the new cloud of smoke with a sigh, "True that man, true that."

A long silence passed between the two as they watched the soccer game and various refugees and gears pass by. Some waved, others ignored them. Even in war, friends were seldom. Gears usually only befriended their squad mates, other squads didn't typically get along too well. It was just natural now days…

"So Lieutenant Jacobs died in Quinta," Mike suddenly asked as he tossed his cigarette butt to the grass at the bottom of the stack of crates. Leonardo frowned and looked up at him nodding his hairy head.

"It seems so. Apparently the brothers and sisters in our squads were the only ones to make it out of hell yesterday…," he paused looking thoughtful. "I feel for Dalia. But you have to understand that she is in a much better place now," he finished wisely. Mike just made a stern face and nodded briskly shooting his eyes to the refugee children that appeared to be done playing soccer.

He had hardly known the female gear in his extremely short time serving with her on Echo Squad. But to see such a pretty face go so fast was just unbearable. It demonstrated that war wasn't a game… but a challenge that only the bravest of people could face. And in order to win, sacrifices had to be made…

"You do believe that, yes brother?" Mike looked down confirming the big man's rhetorical question with a nod.

"Yeah man, I hear ya," he said distantly just as he spotted a familiar face jogging towards them from around the corner of the mess hall tents. He recognized the baggy clothes and shaved head from a mile away… Leonardo quickly spotted the teen jogging towards them and chuckled loudly.

"It looks like your little friend has come back to visit his hero!" Mike frowned and watched the teen finally come to a stop near Leonardo staring up at him with big hazel eyes.

"Whoa… Where can I get tats like that," he exclaimed in a loud, oddly high pitched voice. Puberty? At this age? Mike smirked at the thought staring down at the kid fingering the cog tags around his neck. Leonardo chuckled and stood up hoisting his belt higher on his big gut.

"I will talk to you later brother," he announced to Mike, "But for now, sleep and food sound too damn good for me to pass up." Mike laughed and waved good bye as the big Sergeant lumbered off in the direction Zeke had come. The teen watched him briefly then turned back to Mike folding his arms.

"I'm waiting ya know," he told Mike impatiently making the Corporal frown. Suddenly he leapt off the top crate dropping about eight feet to the ground in front of Zeke. He then stood standing slightly taller than Zeke with a mischievous glint to his eyes and an irremovable smile.

"You gotta kill some shit first… but it's funny you ask, because the particular artist who did all of them happens to be right here in this outpost. Every time I've stopped here in the last war I got a new one from her," he explained making the teen nod in eagerness.

"Show me! I want one so fucking badly!"

Mike couldn't help but chuckle at the teen making Zeke's fragile face scrunch up into one of slight anger. "I'm serious! I want to get a tattoo!" Mike suddenly stopped laughing but a hint of amusement still lingered on the green haired man's face.

"Fine, follow me; I'll take ya right to her." Zeke's eyes lit up with pleasure and excitement as Mike stalked off towards the field of grass. Zeke literally bounded after him, for being eighteen, he sure was child like in many ways…

The two made quick time through the refugee tents where Mike got hundreds of bizarre stares most likely from the ink covering his body. The whole time they had been walking, Zeke kept pointing out certain ones and asking why. "What's with the snakes coiled around the skull?"

"It's supposed to be how I'm gonna look when I die," he lied back quickly. The majority of his tattoos were pointless, simply there because he liked them. The only one with any true meaning to him was the cog tags tattooed around his bicep with his recruitment date on them. Sometimes people mistake that one for being real tags…

Zeke opened his mouth to blurt out another question but Mike strode forward quickly and rounded a tent hoping to see her. To his luck he found her, talking to an elderly refugee couple that seemed confused. "Who are we looking for exactly anyways," Zeke muttered as Mike ignored him and moved towards the female gear.

Out of her peripherals she must of saw Mike and the untidy teen because she waved the couple good bye and moved towards them holding her lancer across her tan body. Her shiny black hair was cut short with long bangs like usual as her dark chocolate eyes flashed over Mike and Zeke. A curt smile formed on her lips immediately, "Well if it isn't Mike 'Mayhem' Simmons, and who's the follower," she said in a highly accented voice tinted with humor.

Mike grinned and shot a glance at Zeke who looked back at him furrowing his thin brows. "This is Zeke, one of Quinta's two survivors… he wants a tattoo Samantha."

Corporal Samantha Byrne raised her head in acknowledgment eyeing Zeke with interest. Zeke looked rather scared she thought, but she quickly brushed the thought away and turned to Mike smirking. "And why did you direct her to me?"

Mike chuckled, "Because you're the only person I know in the whole damn Cog that can do a tattoo well!" Samantha rolled her eyes and nodded absently taking much more pleasure to the compliment than she led on.

"Fine I'll do it, but right now I'm on outpost guard duty, obviously you're not handsome," she said referring to the bare chested Mike who smiled. She then turned to Zeke who appeared to have, a look of jealousy maybe? Weird…

"But in exactly two hours meet me back here and I can give you one, sound good Zeke?" The teen nodded happily grinning ear to ear. "Good, I'll see you then, Mike, good to see you, hope your squad gets over Dalia." Mike nodded solemnly just as a group of fully armored gears appeared behind Samantha. He wondered how she had got news on their mission so early…

"Hey Byrne let's get a move on," one gear shouted grumpily waving an arm frantically. Samantha turned to them then back to Mike smiling.

"That's my signal, I'll see you around." With a brief nod of acceptance Samantha shot off towards the gears leaving Mike and Zeke to stare. A good thirty seconds passed before Zeke opened his mouth to question Mike once more but the Corporal quickly put a hand up.

"Do you ever give it a rest?" Zeke half smiled and patted Mike on the shoulder with a surprisingly cold touch.

"Did it ever occur to you that I just do it to piss you off?" Mike's face disappeared of any type of pleasure and got very stern. Satisfied, a grin appeared on Zeke's face as Mike began to stalk off. Zeke watched him until he finally stopped turning back to Zeke with a smirk.

"Just don't get some stupid stereotypical tattoo kid," he called back. Zeke's face flushed with red as the green haired gear turned away and disappeared around a tent.

_"What a hypocrite," was all the teen murmured folding his arms…_

**XVX**

**8:30 P.M that evening… **

The outpost's lights illuminated the massive area of tents quite well considering Hanar outpost was in the middle of nowhere. It surprised Matt as he stepped out of the barracks with a group of other gears in casual clothing. He had expected a dim and poorly lit base that would be difficult to defend under attack… but then again, this was also a refugee camp, so their protection was greatly significant to the Cog High Command's reputation.

"Shit man wonder if we can go get something to eat yet at the food tent or something."

"Yeah, I'm hungry as hell."

Matt quickly lost interest in the boring conversation the group of gears were having and split off from them. He walked towards the armory for awhile then caught sight of fully armed gears jogging. Curiosity getting the better of the bald Lieutenant he followed them behind the armory to the entrance of the outpost where a line of armadillos sat. Each vehicle's lights screeched blindness at anything in front of them. Including a squinting Colonel Vinson, who held a forearm to his eyes as he stared at the gears climbing in.

Matt quickly caught sight of the Colonel and stormed up to him frowning. "Colonel, with all do respect, but what the hell is going on?" Matt's words suggested hostility but his voice remained calm and focused as always making Vinson turn to him with slowly with raised brows.

"Cog High Command has ordered a night attack on a Karn stronghold east of New Jacinto. The stronghold is supposedly prepping for a mass assault on the HQ, long story short; the Chairman doesn't want to die Lieutenant." Matt resisted the temptation to drop his jaw and instead followed Vinson's gaze back to the armadillos as the first few began to roll out roaring into the night.

The two superior ranking gears didn't even notice the familiar face approach from behind. "Lt. Dunbar! I was hoping to run into today yet before I departed."

Matt and Vinson spun around to find themselves staring at Corporal Jon Downey. His brown hair messy, his eyes bloodshot with exhaustion, and his armor strapped on lazily. The young Corporal literally looked like he had woken up and walked out here…

Matt looked up and down fairly quick and smiled, "You look a little- "Tired and like shit I know," Jon finished staring past him at a group of gears standing by an armadillo. "But as a driver in the Cog you don't get the liberty of choosing when and when you don't feel like driving," he said with a smirk letting his green eyes fall back on Matt.

Suddenly he reached out a hand and patted Matt's meaty shoulder. "It's been an honor to fight alongside you Matt... Hopefully we'll meet up again some time… Maybe under better circumstances?" Matt chuckled slightly at the Driver's humor but was silenced when the gears behind him yelled out at Jon calling him over.

"Same goes to you Jon, come back in one piece," Matt said briskly sensing the urgency from the gears yelling.

The driver laughed properly at that as he began to back pedal towards the squad waiting next to the armadillo he was assigned to. He waved one last time and opened his mouth as if to say more, but instead turned away jogging to the armadillo where the squad lieutenant shook his hand. Matt watched remembering his first meeting with the driver a mere two days ago.

"They never get breaks," Vinson grunted quietly making Matt suddenly remember the Colonel was there.

"Yeah, that's what concerns me most," he muttered back as Jon disappeared from sight in the armadillo. In a matter of seconds the box like vehicle was thundering past them along the gravel followed by others leaving Matt and Vinson to watch in dignified silence. "How much Intel do they have on the stronghold?"

Vinson frowned and shook his head gloomily, "Not enough."

Matt bit his lip when a loud speaker suddenly blared over the outpost. "Colonel Vinson and all high ranking gears report to debriefing immediately! Urgent message from Cog High Command!"

_Matt and Vinson looked at each other gravely, then without wasting another second, both took off in full stride to said debriefing tent… _

_**Riddick Writer: So other than the first chapter, this is one of our few non-action chapters… but the point was to try and build on characters! So if you think I succeeded or failed at that, please do review and give me some constructive criticism! Particularly if your OC was one of the characters I tried to build on! :P **_

_**See you guys next time! **_


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